PATHANAMTHITTAA: Nurses nationwide require a unified national registration system to address hurdles in the current online registration processes under the Nurses Registration and Tracking System (NRTS), the Indian Professional Nurses Association (IPNA) has said.
Introduced in 2018, NRTS aims to centralise and digitise the registration of nursing professionals. However, several challenges persist, particularly regarding state-specific registrations, which restrict professional mobility of nurses.
Apart from disruptions and delays in allotting the National Unique Identification Number (NUID) through the web portal, only less than 12 lakh nurses have the NUID out of over 36 lakh nurses in the country, according to the IPNA.
As per the existing rules of the Indian Nursing Council (INC), a nurse registered in one state must cancel that registration and obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) to work in another state. This process is not only cumbersome but also leads to delays and financial burden.
Speaking to TNIE, Siju Thomas, joint secretary of IPNA, highlighted the plight of nurses: "The registration and renewal processes are time-consuming, and nurses often have to rely on middlemen and agencies to get their documents. These intermediaries exploit them financially. Moreover, often nurses do not receive their documents on time, which affects their ability to work."
The association emphasised that nurses face significant delays in obtaining registration renewals, NOCs, and reciprocal registration across states. "It is painful that repeated pleas to address these issues have been ignored," he added.
The IPNA has called for immediate intervention by authorities to streamline the registration processes. The association proposed an integrated national platform that would allow nurses to register once and work anywhere in India without the need for repetitive state-specific registrations.
A unified system, they argue, would resolve the delays and eliminate the dependence on intermediaries, ensuring transparency and efficiency.
With the advent of such an online mechanism and the effective implementation of NRTS, many of the difficulties faced by nurses could be resolved, enabling smoother professional mobility and better utilisation of the country's nursing workforce.
Siju further said the nursing body is planning to approach the High Court seeking a remedy for the issue.