Kerala nurse Lini Puthussery died treating a Nipah patient last year.
Lini Puthussery, the nurse from Kerala who died due to Nipah virus that she contracted while treating a patient last year during the Nipah outbreak, was posthumously awarded National Florence Nightingale Award 2019.
The award was presented by President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday in New Delhi and it was received by her husband Sajeesh P.
President Kovind presented the National Florence Nightingale Awards to the nursing community yesterday on International Nurses Day.
"Nurses play a vital role in delivering quality and cost-effective healthcare, addressing multiple health challenges and responding to the health needs of individuals, families and communities," President Kovind said.
He further added the world is more in need of care and compassion, and nurses indeed are symbols of "seva, shushrusha, karuna". For patients and their families, nurses are the face of healthcare services.
The President also shared that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced 2020 as the year of the nurse and mid-wife.
"We have an increasing number of elderly people who deserve and require proper geriatric care. In India, families take care of our elders in their old age. However, with changing lifestyles the demand for professional caregivers to take care of the elderly is on the rise," President Kovind said.
"These care-givers, who need not be trained nurses, would certainly benefit from basic training in geriatric care. Our nursing training institutions can consider developing short training programs for such caregivers too," he added.