Mr. Harendra Singh is the CEO of Asharfi Hospital and Director of the Dhanbad School of Nursing, Dhanbad. He has a total experience of 24 Years. He worked as a Project Manager at Sri Ram Construction from 2003 to 2005, he then opened his own hospital named Asharfi Hospital in Dhanbad in October 2006 and started giving service to the patients. He then opened the Dhanbad School of Nursing in 2013 and then started working there as Director of the college. He is focused on providing the best service with the help of top faculties from all over the country to make nurses with real-life knowledge. He did an MBA from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, New Delhi in 1999.

Dhanbad School of Nursing

You have held key positions at education institutes throughout your professional career. What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

When I started my career, it was a different field but as soon as I realized that in a place like Dhanbad, Jharkhand it is very important to have a well-equipped hospital and after that, I thought that there is the scarcity of good nurses and we had to take students from nearby states and local people are not getting benefit out of it. So, in the coming days, we thought that we have infrastructure and faculty members who can help in getting the nurses who are having real-life knowledge and the best practical training of providing services to the patients wherever they go. The motivation behind getting connected to the education sector is to make Jharkhand self-sufficient when it comes to nursing and to provide good career options to the students in the field of nursing in their locality.

Being the director of the Dhanbad School of Nursing, what is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

As far as leadership is concerned, what I feel is a way through which you can help your team and subordinates to guide and move ahead to a specific goal. I personally believe in guiding people by setting examples. I believe in complete team work as without the support of the team it is nearly impossible to achieve a desired set of goals. I believe in team play. I guide them with the ideas and get inputs from the other team members so that the plans can be improvised and can drive us to achieve a specific target.

Being Director of Dhanbad School of Nursing, how do you strategize about the key programs and plans for the marketing and administration of your school?

We work in complete harmony with our team members specially HOD’s and Principal to formulate any plan and we work on the hit and trial method. We first implement any administrative policy and then our core team closely observes the implications of that strategy and provides us with continuous feedback so that we can further improve and implement those strategies. It's nothing like that. We just implement any strategy and we make others follow the same rigidly, we keep a lot of options open so that we can implement the changes as and when it is required. We have a complete functional department of Marketing and PR which works independently and provides us the best way through which we can invest and utilize our funds in an optimized way.

The education systems in India and other foreign countries are structured very differently. In your experience, what can an inbound student gain from studying here in your institute/ university/ school?

We have a great set of faculty members and other support staff from our hospital which helps in making a nurse who has real-life knowledge, best practical training, excellent behavioral skills and quality operational acumen, so that they can deal with the demanding, complex, diversified nursing care services with vigor and zeal. We have a 250 bedded hospital that helps the Nurses understand the crux of Nursing in a practical environment.

What do you think should be the University’s top priority over the next 10 years?

We have courses such as ANM, GNM, B.Sc Nursing, Post Basic B.Sc Nursing, and paramedical courses. In the coming next 10 years, we are working for sustainable growth. We would love to increase the intake which will require infrastructure on which we are already working and further going ahead. We are working for a complete functional medical college which can help the students from nearby places to study near their hometown and serve the society.

When you first came to Dhanbad School of Nursing, what was your vision for the College? Has it evolved over time, and how far along in implementing that vision are you?

We have started the hospital in 2006 and worked continuously on improving the facilities, infrastructure and the services that we can offer to people and then in 2013, we have started the ANM (Auxiliary Nursing and MidWifery ) and in 2013, the Indian Nursing Council (INC), New Delhi & Jharkhand Nurses Registration Council (JNRC) approved the intake of 30 students per annum in the ANM. In 2017, the school introduced General Nursing & Midwifery (GNM), along with the thriving ANM course, which also got recognized by INC and affiliated by JNRC. It has an annual intake of 40 students per annum. And from 2018 we have started a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc Nursing) and we are continuously working to increase the intake by providing the best infrastructure.

What do you see as Dhanbad School of Nursing’s greatest strengths?

The greatest strength of our institute is the well-dedicated faculty members and the supporting staff of the college and the students who are studying here and are dedicated to their future.

Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

The students must try to take knowledge and take a deep dive into their subject so that they can understand the subjects they have opted for and must try to get the knowledge practically so that they can use it in the future. They must not just focus on getting marks but also on making them employable by inculcating the knowledge in real life whenever they get into situations where they can improvise.