Jaipur, Nov 16: At least 7500 trained nurses were jobless in Rajasthan although there was an acute shortage of para-medical staff in government-run hospitals and dispensaries, a nursing association leader said today. As against the ratio of one nurse per three patients, there was only one nurse in 1-2 wards of the hospitals like Sawai Man Singh hospital, the biggest one in Rajasthan, Navratan Sharma, chairman of the state unit of Trained Nurses Association of India, told a press conference here.

Nurses' working conditions were apathetic and they were facing work load burden too in the hospitals, Sharma said.

There was an urgent need to formulate a state policy on nursing profession to solve their day-to-day grievances and set up an institution of post-graduate courses in the state, he said. To highlight the plight of nursing staff, biennial national conference-2003, organised by the Trained Nurses Association (TNAI) would be held here from November 20-26, he said.

Bureau Report