A new national programme called the Neonatal Critical Care Nursing Training Initiative has been launched in India to boost neonatal nursing capacity across the country. The initiative aims to train 1,500 nurses through a blended training model — combining online and offline learning — and its formal inauguration took place at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad.
The initiative is a collaborative effort involving KEDMAN SkillEd India Foundation, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Hospital, Getinge Medical India Pvt. Ltd. (under its CSR mandate), and Business Sweden — representing an Indo–Swedish partnership in the healthcare sector.
The background for this programme is worrisome: India’s Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) is currently 19 per 1,000 live births (according to 2021 data from the Sample Registration System), which is significantly above the global target of 12 per 1,000 live births set under the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Strengthening neonatal nursing skills is considered one of the most cost-effective ways to improve newborn outcomes — evidence suggests that improved neonatal nursing care could reduce mortality by 15 % to over 50 %, depending on context.
The training programme has been developed end-to-end by KEDMAN SkillEd India Foundation, with clinical inputs from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. It includes structured neonatal critical care training using digital content, learning-management system (LMS) delivery, simulation-based skill building, and specialist case-based sessions. In total, 12 medically validated training modules have been crafted by neonatologists at Amrita Hospital. Nurses who perform well may also be eligible for residential immersion training, along with AI-enabled proctored assessments and competency certification.
Currently, India is estimated to need more than 100,000 specialised neonatal nurses in the coming decade — in addition to roughly 650,000 more nurses to meet workforce standards set by World Health Organization (WHO).
This initiative has been positioned as a model for how international collaboration, technology-enabled training, and corporate social responsibility contributions can together bolster neonatal care capacity — potentially helping India move closer to its 2030 health goals.
