U.S. $ 360,000 grant for CMC College of Nursing

[sajiv]

U.S. $ 360,000 grant for CMC College of Nursing

VELLORE: The American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA), the U.S., granted U.S.$ 360,000 to the College of Nursing (CON) of the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, for the construction of a new block for the CON library.

Briefing newspersons about the project at the CMC Hospital premises here on Monday, Bharathy Jacob, Dean and Rosaline Jayakaran, Deputy Dean of CON said that while the existing library located on the second floor of the ASHA building could accommodate 135 students at a given time, the new library to be constructed in the new campus of the CON in Kagitha Pattarai on an area of 9000 square feet would have reading space for 300 students at a given time. The new library would have separate cubicles for individual student study, besides reprography and processing units and Internet facilities. The existing library has 8400 books on nursing, 800 non-nursing books, 2850 national and international journals and 1033 theses. The new library, when completed, would also be open to students of other Colleges of Nursing in the Dr. MGR Medical University area, on payment of Rs. 100 per day.

The Ground Breaking Ceremony for the library complex would be performed at 12.15 p.m. on Tuesday. Andrew T. Simkin, U.S. Consul-General at Chennai, will lay the foundation stone for the new complex.

Ms. Bharathy Jacob said that the new academic block for CON, which is under construction on a 12-acre site in the new campus in Kagitha Pattarai, is expected to be ready by December. Besides the educational block, an administrative block is also being built in the Kagitha Pattarai campus, all at a cost of about Rs. 10 crore to Rs. 12 crore. The educational campus would comprise classrooms, and lounges for students and staff. Other facilities to be constructed in the Kagitha Pattarai campus include an undergraduate women's hostel, postgraduate women's hostel, common men's hostel, common auditorium, a chapel and 240 houses for the staff of the CON, besides doctors and nurses of the CMC hospital.

Shirley David, Additional Deputy Dean of CON said that the CMC CON was the first College of Nursing to be started in the country in 1946. The CMC CON received an Award of Excellence as the Best College of Nursing from the Institute of International Educational Service, Chennai, in 1996. It was recognised by the Central government as a Centre of Excellence in 2000. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) gave a 5-star rating for the CMC CON as the Best College of Nursing in 2002. In the same year, it also became a Study Centre of the National Consortium of Ph.D. Nursing, run by the Indian Nursing Council in collaboration with the World Health Organisation. In 2004, it became a member of the 36-member Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery. Started with three students as a School of Nursing, the CMC CON has 635 students today. Sundari Edwin, Nursing Superintendent, CMC hospital and Professor of Community Health Nursing of the CMC said that the CMC CON became the first nursing institution to practise integration of nursing and educational services since 1967. The teachers of CON visited the clinical area of the CMC hospital and supervised and guided the nursing students, in-patients, staff nurses and persons in charge of wards. This integration of nursing and educational services is a speciality of the CMC CON as it enabled the students of CON to learn patient care in a clinical setting, and not just in the classrooms, she said.