The Higher Education Review

Founders of Ganga Institute of Health Sciences (GIHS) Dr. J. G. Shanmuganathan and Mrs. Kanakavalli Shanmuganathan had already stepped into the healthcare sector with a hospital - Ganga Hospital under their headship. In the midst of driving the healthcare sector to provide proper services, Dr. J. G. Shanmuganathan aimed at providing education to women as he believed that the standard of a family elevates only when its women are educated. With this purpose, he started GIHS in 2006 integrating nursing degree courses. Located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, GIHS offers a plethora of paramedical courses. It started with a diploma Nursing (three years course), B.Sc. Nursing (four years course) and P.B. B.Sc. Nursing (two years course). Later, GIHS added many courses under allied health sciences which are - B.Sc. Accident Emergency Care Technology, B.Sc. Critical Care Technology, B.Sc. Medical Laboratory Technology and M.Sc. Clinical Nutrition. The allied health courses follow MGR Medical University, Chennai curriculum and are accredited by Tamil Nadu Nursing Council and National Level Indian Nursing Council.

Pious to Fruitful Education
An institution with a high commitment to render academic excellence for students to perform at peak, GIHS imbibes the vision to showcase the quality of patient care, surgical expertise, academic approaches and medical ethics. "We are moving ahead by holding our motto - ­'Aspire to Excel' so that we produce nurses who could fulfill the need for high-quality patient care. By translating the vision and motto into everyday life, GIHS faculties have been able to form satisfied and happy students. Coimbatore is a small place and there are more than needful number of nursing colleges, leading to severe competition. That's why we made collaboration with the University of Malaya, Malaysia for faculty and student exchange. The students learn the health problems in Malaysia and the treatment methodologies. Second thing is, the students who completed studying at GIHS work

at our hospital, for which alumni tutoring is an added benefit for studying at GIHS," says Dr. J. G. Shanmuganathan, Founder, GIHS.

"GIHS imbibes the vision to showcase the quality of patient care, surgical expertise, academic approaches and medical ethics"

Skill development program, personality development program, motivational speaking, conference, (national) and state level), and workshop are some of the activities that keep the environment very conducive and dynamic for the students to learn. Free education to students coming from a difficult economic background is another striking part of learning at GIHS. Since Tamil Nadu's literacy rate compared to other states particular to Kerala is less, private colleges like GIHS are helping to increase the literacy rate. GIHS is coming forward to see the girls are getting free education with practical and soft skill-building.

GIHS focuses on student development programs like - skill development, personality development, personality assessment and attitude betterment. The students learn in spacious classrooms, practice in labs for the main core subjects like pediatric oxygen gynecology, medical surgical nursing community and nutrition. Uniform visits to medical colleges for witnessing a cadaver, learning the organ system are parts of the curriculum at GIHS. Also, GIHS has a simulation lab for teaching the most important medical procedures. Concept teaching becomes easy using simulations. In addition, academic partnership with nurses working overseas helps to create a holistic learning culture at GIHS. These nurses interact with the students through video conferencing and speak in detail about the abroad nursing practices.

Keeping a check on students' health, GIHS also organizes wellness programs like regular walks and laughing sessions. Then different types of games are also conducted as a part of students' mind relaxation. 'Wellness Wednesday' is a concept that hovers around the institution campus, the day on which students are subjected to fitness programs. Health camps are often conducted at the institution campus with nursing students playing key roles. The students collect data from people and assess those. Following data collection, the

nurses provide data to doctors and doctors deliver medication free of cost. Other awareness campaigns on dengue, blood pressure checkups, health education, cardiology, child obesity are parts of the students' extracurricular activities.

Eligible students receive scholarships for studying at GIHS. SC/ST and BC/MBC Scholarship, Bhaskaran Memorial Scholarship Award and Prema Bhaskaran Memorial Scholarship Award are a few scholarship programs supporting the education cause. "Post medical scholarship and minority scholarship are out there for the students. Some scholarships that can be called 'sponsorship' fulfill the financial needs of the students. My management comes forward to help the needy students," explains Dr. J. G. Shanmuganathan. GIHS students are also great performers in extracurricular activities in usual conditions.

Where many institutions are bothered about the total number of students present in the class, GIHS' strong ethical practice with students-faculty ratio of 1:6 is a major appreciable factor. Other strong highlighting fractions for studying at GIHS include the healthcare assistance they provide to tribal people from different locations. The students experience a number of unique health problems encountered by the tribal people and provide solutions to those. "We are conducting event on human chain to teach the community people on dealing with sudden health hazards. Like sudden heart attack causes a body to collapse which can be avoided by giving compression at chest. We are teaching these things and would like to bring modification in the healthcare industry," concludes Dr. J. G. Shanmuganathan.

Dr. J.G. Shanmuganathan, Founder
Dr. J.G. Shanmuganathan is the chairman of Ganga Hospital (parent hospital of GIHS). Professionally, he is an esthetician and has completed Ph.D. in Tamil literature for his doctoral thesis on 'The Importance of Societal Values in the works of Bharathiar'. Dr. J.G. Shanmuganathan is a committed personality with passion towards showing the younger generation true virtues of life by guiding them to righteous path and delivering knowledge for success.