Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SM)

Udupi, Dec 5: The 19th annual day of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON) was held at Hotel Fortune Inn Valley View on Monday December 3.

Dr Manju Vatsa, principal AIIMS, was the chief guest. She congratulated the students and applauded MCON for its phenomenal growth in the last 23 years. She also expressed her concern over the expansion and commercialization of nursing education thereby compromising the standards of nursing education and emphasized on recruitment of good teachers and adequate clinical competence and constant advances to improve quality care in the country.

She emphasized the importance of compassion and integrity in teachers and sense of responsibility in the students wherever they work, guided by ethics. She advised the students to continue aiming at excellence and to remain updated with the latest trends to deliver quality care while serving mankind.

Meritorious students of BSc nursing, PBBSc, nursing, post basic diploma nursing, Msc nursing, MPhil nursing and PhD nursing were awarded.

Tenzin Choekyi, a Tibetan student who was awarded the TMA Pai gold medal at the recently held convocation for the first rank, also bagged most of the awards instituted by MCON.

The vice chancellor, Dr K Ramnarayan, said MCON is a jewel in the crown of Manipal University and lauded its excellence in fields of nursing and research. He said that success cannot be achieved through a tap on a screen or a click of a mouse. “Students have become techno savvy while relying mainly on online information and following the ‘instant mantra’. But success cannot be achieved that way as it is an integration of several ingredients, like creativity, innovation, ability to reinvent and tact of thinking globally and acting locally”, he said.

He concluded by appealing to the students to imbibe the right value, have a goal, focus on it and never let the past failures eclipse their present dreams.

Speaking on behalf of the graduates, the outstanding student of the year, Tenzin Choekyi, recalled how MCON made her and others fall in love with nursing and how it inculcated the right values in them and brought the change from within making her feel that it was the best decision of her life.

The formal function was concluded with an hour-long cultural program which included the songs by the nightingales of MCON, some finest classical and non-classical dances and fashion show by the faculty.

Dr (Col) Dayananda, medical superintendent and chief operating officer of KH, Manipal and Dr Anice George, dean, MCON and director of Nursing Education Manipal University were present at the function.