Career of as over 3,500 trainee nurses in the state is at stake now as the Jharkhand Nursing Registration Council (JNRC) has not held their examination since the past eight months.

Having finished these two-year training courses, while many of these trainees have to overstaying at their hostels, several others have already returned their homes where they have engaged themselves in agricultural activity.

Significantly, most of the three dozen nursing training institutes are getting placement offers from both the government as well as private hospitals from across the country.

But these trainees are helpless as the exam has not been held by the JNRC though about eight months have gone since their training period was over. As most of trainees hail from very poor families, they can not afford for the hostel expenses while overstaying and thus getting compelled to return their homes.

There are 24 government-run nursing training Institutes and about a dozen private institutions in Jharkhand. On an average,, 100 students are admitted in each of the institutions every year for the two-year training course which includes six months On Job Training.

"I had joined for the nursing training at the Nursing Kaushal College in Seraikela in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district in August 2019 and had taken a bank loan of Rs 1.5 lakhs. My training, including the On Job Training was over by September 2021, but as the exam off our batch could not be held for Covid-19 and other reasons, I had too return home, " said one of the trainees while talking to this website.

The trainee who is resident of Rajnagar block in Seraikela said requesting anonymity presently she is left with no option than contributing for the agricultural activities in her family while waiting for her exam. Officials in the Seraikela-based Nursing Kaushal College confirmed about many trainees to have left the training institution as the exam was delayed for the 2019-20 batch.

"The exam is being delayed due to the pandemic. For this not only the students of 2019-20 batch are suffering, but the Institute management are also in trouble because several students of the old batch are still staying at the hostel and we have to accommodate them with the students of new batch, " said a senior official of the Nursing Kaushal College, Seraikela while talking to The Telegraph Online.