The BBC have led with a story that 1000 nurses and midwives from Ghana have joined the UK NMC register in the past year.
We have our own programme on Welcoming International Nurses and Midwives online on 20th June.
Welcoming International Nurses and Midwives
What are the drivers of International recruitment and how can it be made to work effectively?
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 09:00 – 17:30 BST
The BBC programme sets out the impact on low and middle income countries, in this case Ghana, of their best and most highly qualified midwifery and nursing staff leaving. It shows how the burden to training new nurses and midwives falls back on them. Why does this matter? Because Ghana is a red flag country, one where the prosperous and developed world is not supposed to recruit and take these desperately needed and expensively trained professionals depleting an already stretched Ghana health service.
There are similar stories from Nigeria as the NHS runs desperately up a down escalator to replace those who are leaving the profession or who no longer join from Europe, where the numbers have dropped dramatically.
This is part of the much bigger picture painted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in their latest report . NMC has just announced that 25,000 new nurses and midwives who joined the register last year with overseas qualifications.
That is almost half the new entrants to the NMC Register of 51,000. Every year that carries on the NHS become more dependent on international recruits.
One fifth or all nurses and midwives working in the NHS are already from overseas. A proportion that is also matched in ireland.
Since Brexit and the drop in the number of nurses from the EU the numbers from commonwealth and other countries has sharply risen. While there has always been a tradition of recruitment from these countries the numbers are dramatic.
In the recent political rows about immigration numbers of 606,0000 once you take out the 200,000 from Ukraine, most of whom will go back if the war is settled and the 140,000 fleeing from Hong Kong then the largest and most striking group of immigrants is driven by recruits to the NHS and other health care and nursing services.
The government insists that they do not “actively” recruit from these countries and in fact spend development and aid money helping these countries train new staff and develop their health services.
Indeed in many UK universities make a huge contribution to the training and development of health care professionals, including courses for nurses and midwives, which is often the biggest fee earner after the lucrative MBA courses.
But that is slightly disingenuous for the government to deny the recruitment dependency on red flag countries as there are active recruitment agencies working as intermediaries to bring professionals to the UK to meet the advertised demand for professionals. They may not be paid directly by the government but government cannot be blind to what is going on.
Our NHS depends on the goodwill and support of these new recruits and the 20% of nursing and midwifery staff already working here from overseas.
But does the NHS do a good job of making them feel welcome and a full part of the team? As the numbers grow, and they will because it takes time to increase the number of UK places and then train new staff for 3 years, it is critical that trusts and health providers get the welcome and induction right for those that do come.
Welcoming International Nurses and Midwives, on 20th June is an online programme for nursing and midwifery managers and NHS recruitment staff looking at how to get the welcome and integration of new international recruits right. It will be examining the whole recruitment and induction journey and hearing not just from experts in the UK, from the NMC and the Nursing and Midwifery Board in Ireland but from the International Council for Nursing.
Getting this right has never been more important to staffing our services.
Welcoming International Nurses and Midwives
What are the drivers of International recruitment and how can it be made to work effectively?
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 09:00 – 17:30 BST
Neil Stewart
Editorial Director
Maternity and Midwifery Forum and MATFLIX