College of Nursing Dean Kathryn Tart (left) and associate professor Shainy Varghese participated in a two-day conference with the Indian Nursing Council this summer. | Courtesy of UH Media Relations

The College of Nursing and the Indian Nursing Council (INC) have signed an agreement to share nursing talent and increase knowledge between the two countries.

Students now have the opportunity to diversify their experiences by traveling between the United States and India to gain experience in the medical field. The idea was brought up when UH System Regent, Durga Agrawal, invited the president of the INC, T. Dileep Kumar, to Houston in April and discussed options of joining the two programs.

“India has begun the process for advanced practice nursing care and has many obstacles to overcome, not least of which is the current salary of nurses, and what those salaries would look like with Nurse Practitioner or Doctorate of Nursing Practice degrees,” said College of Nursing Dean Kathryn Tart in a news release.

The INC oversees nurses and nursing education in India.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the University Of Houston College Of Nursing and the Indian Nursing Council was signed at the India Consulate in Houston on April 17, 2018, Tart said.

Agrawal, a supporter of the Doctorate of Nursing Program, saw in his connections in India an opportunity to join the two programs together. The Indian Nursing Council had just started a new program called the Nurse Practitioner Critical Care program and was looking for support.

The INC currently has about 1,700 nursing baccalaureate programs and plays part in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India, according to an INC news release. 

If a student becomes a part of this program, the trip to India is expected to last seven to 10 days.

Topics that will be studied by both parties include nursing education, population health, community health nursing and leadership, Tart said.

Shainy Varghese, an associate professor in the College of Nursing, and Tart were invited by the INC to New Delhi in June for a two-day workshop.

The two met with 50 nursing programs selected by the INC, 14 of which were in their first year.

Both Varghese and Tart gave talks at prepared meetings with nursing leaders in India. They went on tours of both public and private hospitals to check on the progress of the programs.

Since then, they have been meeting monthly with their colleagues at the INC in India to discuss further plans.

New opportunities for nursing education to be shared between India and the University of Houston are planned to develop through this growing academic and leadership exchange.

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