Health Minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said this at a discussion meeting organised at Shaheed Dr Milon Auditorium of Dhaka Medical College on the occasion of International Nurses Day.

The day is observed marking the birthday of Florence Nightingale as per the decision of International Nursing Council. In Bangladesh, the day is being observed for the first time.

Mosharraf said the curricula of training would be modified apart from including foreign languages in it for the development of nursing and creating opportunities for the nurses to work abroad.

"Some 1,000 nurses come out from 38 government and five private nursing institutes and one nursing college that is inadequate against our need," he said.

Mosharraf said the government would set up five more nursing institutes and one nursing college to raise the number of nurses as one nurse has to assist two doctors in our country against international doctor-nurse ratio of 1:3.

"Some 2000 nurses have been appointed after creating new posts and the process of creating 2000 more posts for nurses is underway in addition to creating 800 posts of supervisors," he said.

Health Secretary AFM Sarwar Kamal, Vice Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Prof. MA Hadi, DG of Health Directorate Prof Dr Md Mizanur Rahman, WHO Country Representative Dr Sunity Achariya, Principal of Dhaka Medical College Prof. Dr Hosneara Tahmin, Principal of Dhaka Nursing College also spoke.