PIB Summary- 15th May, 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

SAKSHAM

Why in News?
The Union Health Ministry has introduced the SAKSHAM (Stimulating Advanced Knowledge for Sustainable Health Management), a Learning Management Information System (LMIS) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

About SAKSHAM (Stimulating Advanced Knowledge for Sustainable Health Management)

• Purpose: SAKSHAM serves as a platform for offering online training and medical education to healthcare professionals across the country.
• Inclusive Capacity Building: The objective of SAKSHAM is to ensure inclusive capacity building among health professionals, ranging from those working in rural and remote primary health centers to those in metropolitan cities’ tertiary care and corporate hospitals.
• Course Coverage: Currently, SAKSHAM: LMIS (Learning Management Information System) hosts over 200 public health and 100 clinical courses, which can be accessed online.
• Resource Repository: SAKSHAM will be developed as a centralized resource repository for training and teaching materials, providing healthcare professionals with easy access to relevant resources.
• Central Database: In addition to training and education, SAKSHAM will also serve as a central database of trained healthcare professionals in the country, facilitating better tracking and management of the healthcare workforce.

About  National Institute of Health & Family Welfare

• Establishment: NIHFW was founded with the purpose of serving as a think tank for the promotion of health and family welfare programs in the country.
• Mandate: The primary mandate of NIHFW is to provide expertise and contribute to policy development in the field of health and family welfare. It acts as a center for research, training, and capacity building in these areas.
• Training and Capacity Building: NIHFW plays a pivotal role in training health professionals, frontline health workers (such as Accredited Social Health Activists – ASHAs and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives – ANMs), as well as central and state officers and healthcare staff. It is recognized as a premier organization for capacity building in the healthcare sector.

International Nurses Day

Why in News?
The International Nurses Day 2023 marks the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.

International Nurses Day

• International Nurses Day is a celebration on the 12th of May every year to commemorate the anniversary of Florence Nightingale.
• Florence Nightingale is considered to be the founder of modern nursing.
• 2023 Theme: “Our Nurses, Our Future”

Significance of the day

• Nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers. It will encourage the entire nurse community and the public to celebrate the day as well as would provide necessary information and resources to raise the profile of the nursing profession.
• The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the vital role nurses play. Without nurses and other health workers, it is not possible to win the battle against outbreaks.

Florence Nightingale

• Florence Nightingale was a British social reformer, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
• She is famously known as “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
• Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War.
• Much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge.