Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 21: Nursing aspirants including those who are temporarily working in various hospitals today said that the recruitments made on academic arrangement were ruining their careers.
The issue came to the fore after the SKIMS, Soura ordered the disengagement of the nurses who were engaged under the academic arrangement but were shown the door without following the necessary protocol.
When the issue was highlighted, the hospital authorities asked the nurses who were shown the door to apply again for the nurses’ posts that were advertised again under the academic arrangement, prompting the aspirants even those who are currently working to criticise the form of recruitment across J&K.
“It is a farce; an illusion as per which you get a job but you do not have a future because the recruitments made are temporary in nature; it is a need-based cadre, but one would ask that if there are vacancies, why can’t they hire them permanently,” Nabila Bashir, a nursing aspirant who has already worked in several hospitals temporarily said.
The aggrieved nurses said that there is a huge workload in the hospitals, but the manpower is not up to the mark across J&K.
“There sure is a need but one fails to understand, why the authorities are hell-bent to push the eligible people into a dungeon where they get paid, but the future remains at stake forever,” Muhammad Amir, another nursing aspirant said.
It needs to be noted here that the Indian Nursing Council (INC) discourages temporary recruitments including academic arrangements, however, in J&K such recruitments have remained a norm where the nurses are hired temporarily.
“Why should we be forced to come out to protest, rather, ideally, we being eligible and technically sound, should be taken into the system which needs us keeping in view the dearth of the nursing staff,” Junaid Ahmad, another aspiring nurse said.
The nurses demanded that the policy of academic arrangement under which the professionals are hired temporarily should be scrapped and that permanent recruitment must be done to safeguard careers.
“It is nothing, but sheer exploitation of the nursing professionals which they face due to the academic arrangement. We have also seen that the processes of permanent recruitment usually face roadblocks and do not culminate properly,” said another nursing aspirant Safia Hamid.
The nursing professionals said that the exploitation needs to stop and the Government must ensure that their services are utilized in a better way where they not only serve the healthcare set-up but also see job security for themselves.
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