HYDERABAD: The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the prospects for nurses or graduates of nursing to capitalise on the demand in some European countries.
The Overseas Manpower Company Andhra Pradesh Limited (OMCAP) took up a proposal to provide jobs for Telugu nurses from Telangana and Andhra across the UK, Canada, Australia and Gulf countries like Oman and Saudi Arabia.
So far, OMCAP, a government of Andhra Pradesh undertaking company provided jobs – both contractual and permanent for nurses since 2019 after a memorandum of understanding was signed with the German firm Medizin Park, Rhein-Ruhr AG Company to send the qualified nurses there.
There are a total 307 nursing institutes across Andhra and Telangana.
As many as 47 nursing institutes are situated in Hyderabad alone. OMCAP said that while the opportunities are for Andhra Pradesh nurses, they also facilitate nursing students in Telangana and Hyderabad as long as they have an ID proof indicating that they are a resident of AP. So far, at least over 3,500 vacancies have been notified by OMCAP for nursing opportunities. “Out of which, we have at least 40% of the requirement have been catered across the world, mostly in the middle-east,” a senior OMCAP official told STOI.
According to a survey conducted by Jobfeed, the UK has a shortage of nurses at 790 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants. In France, this number is 990 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants, 1,050 for the Netherlands, 1,080 for Belgium and 1,330 for Germany.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a nurse-to-people ratio of at least one nurse per 500 people. Pitla Harini (27), a nurse working at Vancouver General in Canada explains that the moment Covid struck India, she stated that the importance of nurses, lab technicians and other non-MBBS staff was realised.
“Immediately, I applied for a permanent residency (PR) visa and to my surprise, I was recruited in my first attempt,” Harini told STOI.
K Anupama, a nurse, who was selected via OMCAP explains that recruiters from the middle-east are lining up in Andhra Pradesh now after Kerala owing to the pandemic. While a nurse earns around 15,000 as a starting salary in private hospitals in India, the starting package abroad is at least 65,000 to 70,000.
