This document discusses the key issues with counseling in nursing in India. It identifies 10 main issues: 1) scarcity of qualified counselors, 2) lack of awareness about counseling needs, 3) minimal encouragement of counseling environments, 4) lack of counseling training for nurses, 5) poor organizational setup for counseling services, 6) lack of interest and initiatives in counseling, 7) poor counselor-patient ratios, 8) lack of funding for counseling, 9) noncompliance with counseling services, and 10) ethical and moral issues that can arise without proper counseling practices and principles.

1. ISSUES OF
CONSELLI
NG IN
NURSING

2. INTRODUCTION
Counselling services in nursing education are
quite essential but generally neglected,
especially in the Indian scenario. The several
pertinent issues of counselling in nursing,
which need immediate attention, are disscused
ahead:

3. 1. SCARCITY OF QUALIFIED AND
COMPETENT COUNSELLORS …
In our own scenario, there is great scarcity of qualified and
competent counsellors, either in nursing education or
nursing services.
One can hardly find a qualified and competent counsellor
working for nurses in education institutions or practice
settings.
It is generally observed that newly selected student nurses
are found great need of counselling and guidance services
for better adjustment with the new demanding and
challenging environment of their college and hospital.
Therefore, the INC must ensure that each college has at least
one part time counsellor who is qualified and competent .

4. 2. LACK 0F AWARENESS ABOUT
NEEDS & RESOURCES OF
COUNSELLING…
It is generally observed that there is a lack of awareness in
nursing students and nurses about the need and importance of
counselling services for a better future.
Most of the student join nursing education without any formal
preadmission counselling and face difficulties adjusting with
the demanding professional education, which leads to quite a
stressful time for them.
In spite of all the odds, nursing students and nurses are found
to be quite unaware about the need and importance of
counselling services.

5. In addition, in situations where they feel a
need for counselling services , they are not
aware about the available resources, which
adds to their problems.
Therefore, nursing institutions must be
proactive in improving the awareness in
nursing students about the need and
importance of counselling services as well as
the availability of resources.

6. 3. MINIMAL PROCOUNSELLING
ENVIRONMENT...
Nursing institutions or hospitals do not give much importance to
counselling services for nursing students and practising nurses.
In absence of such procounselling environment, one cannot expect
nurses or student nurses to receive standardized counselling
services.
It is high time the institutions realize the importance of counselling
services for nurses and nursing students so that they can adjust to
the new environment or their streesful job better for better learning
and job performance, which is the most essential for quality patient
care.
Very few health care institutions realize the importance of
counselling for nurses or student nurses.

7. 4. LACK OF COUNSELLING
TRAINING FOR
NURSES/NURSING FACULTY…
The nursing faculty or teachers could act as a good
counselling resources in nursing institutions, but there is a
lack of adequate training for the nursing faculty and nursing
taechers.
The same is observed in the hospital setting, where nurses could
act as a good counsellor for their patients.
It is therefore recommended that there must be adequate
curriculum related to counselling in the basic as well-
advanced level of nursing education.
In addition, their must be regular continuing education related
to the counselling for nurses and nursing faculty so that they
can be updated with new aspects of counselling to benefit their
patients.

8. 5. POOR ORGANIZATIONAL SET-
UP FOR COUNSELLING
SERVICES…
A good organizational set-up is required for the efficient implementation of
counselling services such as infrastructure, money and manpower.
There is very poor attention towards building a competent and quality
organization set-up for counselling services in health care institutions of either
nursing education or nursing services.

9. 6. LACK OF INTEREST &
INITIATIVES FOR COUNSELLING
SERVICES…
There is poor interest and initiative for establishing
counselling services among the nursing faculty, nursing
teachers, nurses and management in India.
Interest bring about the motivation to act and one can achieve
initiatives.
Therefore, nursing faculty, nursing teachers and nurses must be
motivated to spark an interest in establishing counselling
services for their patients so that the standard and quality of
nursing services and nursing education can be ensured.

10. 7. POOR COUNSELLOR
CONSELEE RATIO…
There are few initiatives to establish counselling services in Indian
institutions.
There is very poor counsellor-conselee ratio that has created
a poor image and outcome of the counselling services.
An adequate counsellor-counselee ratio must be ensured to
achieve a better conselling outcome.

11. 8. LACK OF FUND FOR
COUNSELLING SERVICES…
There is a scarcity
of funds for
providing
counselling
services(including
to nursing
students and
practising nurses)
in Indian health
care institutions.
In the absence of
adequate funds for
counselling
services, one cannot
imagine anything
positive happening
in the field of
counselling services
for nursing students
and practising
nurses.
Therefore, the government
and management must
realize the importance of
counselling services and
dedicate adequate funds for
these services for nursing
students and practising
nurses, so that the actual
objective of nursing services
and nursing education can be
achieved.

12. 9. NONCOMPLIANCE WITH
COUNSELLING SERVICES…
The other most crucial
issue in the field of
counselling services in
nursing and nursing
education is the problem of
noncompliance with
counselling intervention.
This nonadherence or
noncompliance is because
of several reasons such as
lack of interest, incompetent
counsellors, poor access to
qualified counsellors, lack
of time and inadequate
funds.

13. 10. ETHICAL AND MORAL
ISSUES…
This is also one of the most crucial issues of
counselling services in nursing because the
absence or poor practice of ethical and moral
principles in counselling services may cause
several serious problems
There are some critically essential ethical principles
in counselling services that must be followed by
counsellors such as autonomy of practice,
anonymity of subjects and confidentiality of
information so that ethical, moral and legal
problems pertaining to counselling can be
prevented.

14. SUMMARY
In this lecture we discussed the issues of counselling in nursing that is:
lack of competent and qualified counsellors,
lack awareness about needs and resources of counselling,
minimal procounselling environment,
Lack of counselling training for nurses,
lack of interest and initiatives,
poor organisational setup,
poor counsellor counselle ratio,
lack of fund for counselling,
noncompliance with counselling services, and
ethical and moral issues.

15. Bibliography
• https://www.wikipedia.com/counselling-issues
• https://www.slideshare.com/issues-of-counselling-in-
nursing
• https://www.medium.com/counselling
• Suresh K Sharma – Textbook of Communication and
Educational Technology in Nursing – 2nd Edition, Chapter
4, Page No. 112-113