Ministry of Health Launches National Emergency Life Support (NELS) Courses for Healthcare Professionals
Ministry of Health on Wednesday launched National Emergency Life Support (NELS) courses for doctors, nurses and paramedics. Apart from the training modules, the program also includes developing training infrastructure in all States/UTs to implement the NELS course and creating a cadre of trainers to train doctors, nurses and paramedics working in emergency departments of the hospitals and ambulance services.
Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar Launches NELS: A Step Towards ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in Healthcare Education
Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, said that till now, health care professionals in the country had to rely on foreign modules and paid courses which were not only expensive but were also limited in scope to a handful of emergencies without considering needs and priorities of our population landscape. “Therefore, realizing the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s policy of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the NELS provides standardized curriculum which is based on Indian context and developed in India,” she stated.
Emphasizing Human Resource Development in Emergency Healthcare to Combat Medical Emergencies
“To keep pace with technological advancement advancements, parallel efforts are needed for human resource development by equipping doctors, nurses and paramedics working in emergency departments of hospitals. The training should also be imparted to those providing pre-hospital care with standardized life-saving skills, to minimize mortality due to all types of medical emergencies in the country,” she said.
Dr. Pawar Urges States to Establish NELS Skill Centres and Promote Maximum Utilization of Emergency Care Training
Dr Pawar requested the States to send f proposals for establishing NELS Skill Centres at their medical colleges and urged all Skill Centers to ensure that trainings are not only operationalized but also utilized to the maximum extent to improve the quality of emergency care services in the State. She also requested Disaster Management Cell to regularly interact with participating institutions and monitor their activities to make this a successful initiative.
NELS Activities: Developing Skill-Based Emergency Life Support Training Modules and Establishing Skill Centres in Medical Colleges
The activities under the NELS entail developing emergency life support training modules for doctors, nurses and paramedics after experts’ consultations and based on the Indian context, setting up and equipping skill centres in medical colleges under Center/States to impart skill-based training on emergency life support for all categories of health functionaries, 120 skills centres to be established under SFC (FY: 2021-26) (out of which 90 skill centres are in various stage of development).
NELS Initiative: Enhancing Emergency Clinical Care and Disaster Preparedness in India
This initiative will lead to creation of a pool of trained doctors, nurses and paramedics in the country with skills to provide standardized emergency life support and reduce mortality due to medical emergencies. This will contribute to overall disaster preparedness and response capacities in providing emergency clinical care. NELS course is comprehensive and deals with the management of medical emergencies, surgical emergencies, cardiac emergencies, respiratory emergencies including ventilator management protocol for COVID-19 and other disease, trauma-related emergencies, obstetric emergencies, paediatric emergencies, Snake bites, poisoning etc.
