Positive Outlook Amidst Emerging Negative Circumstances

N. Raghuraman, Management Guru

The word ‘no’ may seem negative to many people, but if used in the right place it also has a positive side. For example, once in his show on television, superstar Amitabh Bachchan had said that ‘No work is difficult for me.’ If you are involved in the hospital and care giving industry, especially the nursing profession or nursing college operations, then this story ahead is very important.

Negative situation: I remembered Amit ji’s words on Tuesday, when I read the research paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held in Chicago this week. It was told that cancer cases are going to increase by 21%.

In this world’s largest cancer conference, it was discussed how currently around 2 crore people in the world are diagnosed with cancer every year. And how by 2050 this figure can reach 3.53 crores. According to the report published in The Lancet magazine, about 1 lakh people in the world will be diagnosed with cancer every day.

In another part of the same report, it is said that the world is facing a serious shortage in cancer workforce and there is an estimated shortage of 10 crore health workers by 2050. It further said that as the cancer progresses, patients may have to wait much longer for testing and treatment in the future. Mark Lawler, co-author of the report, said at its launch that ‘We cannot wait until 2050 to see whether our projections are correct.

We have to act now. Make no mistake, this is a warning and it does not matter where in the world you live. Report co-lead Hedvik Hríček said the global initiative provides a clear warning. Unless we take immediate action to address the critical workforce shortage, we will face an unprecedented cancer crisis. “We call for country-specific strategies, including adoption of AI digital health technologies and smarter use of the workforce.”

Now look at the positives: Statistics don’t lie. And these figures show that the biggest shortage of about 6.5 crore people will be in the nursing staff, followed by about 1.6 crore people in the diagnostic staff. The remaining 19 million people lost will be in other areas of cancer care. That means a total of 10 crore employment opportunities will be created.

According to the report, if investment is made now in the cancer workforce, 170 million deaths could be avoided between 2030 and 2050 and economic benefits of approximately $120 trillion could also be achieved. All 2278 functioning nursing colleges in the country should take serious note of this opportunity if the report’s recommendations are implemented to address potential staff shortages. According to the data presented in the Lok Sabha, there are 2044 private and 234 government colleges. In the last two years the Central Government approved 113 new nursing colleges under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme. This is in addition to the 157 colleges announced in Budget 2023.

These colleges should ensure that every nursing personnel passing out annually gets education relevant to future needs. There are many specialized areas from oncology nurse navigators to palliative and survivorship care experts. Cancer treatment is now moving away from the same chemotherapy for all patients and towards targeted genetic level treatment.

In this, nursing workers play the role of genetic counseling support. The nursing workers of the future will also have to keep up with technology. There are many high-paying opportunities available, such as pediatric oncology nursing and oncology certified nurses, for which skills can be gained through a master’s program.

The bottom line is that We have very little control over some things, but we can definitely find opportunities for ourselves. And at the same time, if not a lot of pain, then at least it can reduce someone’s pain.

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