Govt to introduce legislation for nursing sector: Mirza.

ISLAMABAD -- Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza on Tuesday confirmed plans to introduce new legislation for nursing sector to improve professional standards and address workforce shortages in the country.

In a media briefing, Dr Zafar Mirza said the government had decided to start nurses' development programme to address the issues of shortage of nursing staff in hospitals and improving the quality of education and training at their institutions.

He said there was also a plan to introduce public health emergency concept under which nurses would be assigned to perform duties at different level of health system during any emergency.

He added that this concept would boost the existing health system to make it prepare to manage any emergency situation.

Mirza said there was also a plan to start one year public health course at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for nurses, adding initially 25 nurses would be selected for this programme while later after completion of this programme these nurses would be deployed at primary and secondary health care system of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

He said in order to improve health care delivery system related to nurses, the government would upgrade nursing institutions for imparting education up to graduation level.

He added that with the support of Pakistan Nursing Council, the government was committed to improve the standard of nursing sector.

The special assistant said there was...