The Chinmaya Institute of Nursing was started with a view to provide trained nurses to the Chinmaya Mission Hospital. It started in 1986, in a very humble way, on the top floor of the Vijnana Mandir, which was lying vacant. To begin with, a two-year course for training Auxiliary Nursing Midwives was undertaken, with the approval of the Karnataka Nursing Council. In 1985 a retired Senior Nurse Superintendent joined as the Principal of CHIN. From 1983-1989, five batches of ten students each were trained as Auxiliary Nursing Midwives and sent to bigger hospitals for on-the-job training. Here they learnt specialized theatre work. 

The management of CHIN, thereafter, worked on a project to introduce a course for training Registered Nurses (R.N.), which required approval from the All India Nursing Council in Delhi. Having completed all the necessary formalities, the training course of Registered Nurses started in 1989.

This is a three-year diploma course in nursing which has been approved both by the All -India Nursing Council and the Karnataka State Nursing Council. The institute has a capacity of 90 students. Hostel facilities are also provided. Graduates follow-up their three-year course with a one-year paid internship at the Chinmaya Mission Hospital in Bangalore.

The motto of the institute is, "Jana Seva is Janardana Seva,"-"Service to people is service to the Lord." The students were exposed to weekly classes on subjects like "Personality Development and Service" (Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Geeta). The yellow-robed monastic workers giving these talks in the Chinmaya Institute of Nursing were the main objects of attraction to visitors who came to see the techniques of teaching at the institute!