When Florence Nightingale walked through the wards during the Crimean War, she carried more than a lamp; she carried the beginnings of a profession that would redefine health care for centuries.
Across the world, nurses remain the reassuring voice by the bedside, the steady hands in crisis, and the anchor of trust for families. The World Health Organization has described nurses as indispensable to universal health coverage and central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, even as the workforce has grown steadily, many regions continue to face deep inequities. The memory of a pre-pandemic shortfall of nearly six million nurses is a reminder that sustained investment and policy support cannot pause.
Amid these challenges, a remarkable transformation is underway. Advanced practice roles now enable nurses to assess, diagnose, prescribe, and guide multidisciplinary teams. These pathways are not only expanding access to care, but also demonstrating the leadership potential of the profession. At a time when nursing is being reimagined globally, Apollo’s journey in India exemplifies how the profession can lead with compassion, expertise and vision. The symbol of a nurse in our logo and our mascot reflects the healing hands and devoted hearts at the core of our care. Apollo’s nurses are empowered through Career Pathways, FINE (Finishing Skills in Nursing Excellence), nurse-led clinics, specialised councils, research, home care, and global workforce development, to deliver precise, data-driven care, advance patient safety and influence health care policy. Through their dedication, they stand as exemplars of resilience, leadership, and the transformative power of nursing, carrying forward Apollo’s legacy of world-class, compassionate health care.
Illustration: Deni Lal
A few years ago, in 2020, when the World Health Organization declared it the ‘Year of the Nurse and the Midwife’, the world paused to honour the profound impact of nurses on global health. In India, nurses have been the steadfast guardians of wellbeing—leading maternal and child health programmes, immunisation campaigns, infection control, and chronic disease management with unwavering dedication. Their service across hospitals, communities, and public health initiatives has not only strengthened health care delivery but also safeguarded millions of lives, embodying compassion, and an unwavering commitment to the promise of care turning tireless service into hope, resilience into recovery, and their presence into a lifeline for the nation.
At its core, nursing is a vocation of the heart. It is the quiet strength that holds steady in times of uncertainty, the presence that patients remember long after they return home, and the daily leadership that safeguards quality and safety. Even as health care embraces artificial intelligence, robotics and continuing advancements, nurses remain the human bridge between advanced science and lived experience.
Further, nursing today is not only a profession of compassion, it is a discipline that blends science with service, and leadership with lifelong learning. New avenues are emerging in fields such as critical care, oncology, perioperative services, digital health and genomics—areas that are shaping the very future of medicine.
This evolution opens a horizon of opportunity and for those seeking careers of impact, nursing offers a path where ambition and purpose grow together. It is not only a way to secure one’s own future, but also a means to strengthen families, uplift communities, and contribute to India’s role in global health. Above all, each young person who steps into this calling carries forward a legacy that began with a lamp in a war hospital, and today shines as a beacon of healing, hope, and progress for the world.
Dr Preetha Reddy is Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.