GUWAHATI, July 17 - The city-based Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI), in collaboration with Dr Reddy�s Foundation for Health Education, has started a behavioural skill programme, named Abhilasha, for nurses of the institute.
The programme aims to impart skills like empathy, interpersonal skill, understanding self and others, communication and counseling skill. It is conducted in batches, with four-day sessions at an interval of every four weeks.
�Nurses spend more time with patients than a doctor. Nursing staff of hospitals often face repetitive demands, verbal outbursts, and regrettably, at times, physically aggressive acts. This creates an uncomfortable and stressful work environment for them. The behavioural skill programme will help nursing staff of BBCI for time and stress management, and to cope with the burnout syndrome,� said BBCI director Dr Amal Chandra Kataki.
He said the programme will also assist in organising and planning the routine work of nurses and in dealing with difficult patients. In addition, the skill training programme will also help nurses cope with patients� expectations and thereby contribute to improving a patient�s experience during hospital stay.
�In India, on an average, the nurse versus patient ratio is 1 in 483, which implies that there is a shortage of 20 lakh nurses. According to a World Health Organisation report on Health Workforce in India, the density of trained nurses is 396 per one lakh population in Kottayam, Kerala, and as low as five per one lakh population in Madhepura of Bihar. Thus, there is serious workload on nurses in hospitals across the country,� said the BBCI director.
Swapna Joshi, nursing superintendant at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, said that this training module has been implemented there and has made significant contribution to improving patients� experience and outcomes.
