More than 100 nurses from India are set to join the workforce at Morriston Hospital in Swansea. The new recruits have been brought on board to help fill the void of what are known as band five nurses in the Swansea Bay area.
Health board representatives went to Kochi in India, which led to the employment of 107 new nurses. Some of the new recruits are said to have 15 years' experience. Band 5 roles are normally filled by newly qualified nurses - and according to the health board there is a shortage across the UK.
This is the first time the health board has held a recruitment event overseas, and the new nurses are expected to start working at Morriston Hospital in April, following compliance checks and after they have obtained visas. You can get more Swansea Bay news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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Before they start work, they will carry out a four week OSCE (Obstructive Structured Clinical Examination) training programme in the health board's Nurse Education Training Suite based at its Baglan HQ, before they sit an exam to attain their Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration.
Head of nursing education and recruitment, Lynne Jones, led the health board’s visit, accompanied by Miranda Williams from the health board’s nurse education department; renal matron Lisa Morris; Rhiannon Jones, deputy head of nursing for t&o and spinal surgery, and theatre matron Stewart Dow.
Between them, they interviewed 119 nurses over the course of four days. Lynne said: “We went to India to recruit medical, surgical and theatre nurses. This is where we have the most band 5 vacancies. As part of the overseas nursing recruitment campaign, we decided to hold a face-to-face event which is something we were unable to do during the height of the pandemic.
"We held a lot of our interviews during the pandemic over Teams, which was successful, but there is nothing like face-to-face interviews. The trip allowed us to find out a bit more about the candidates and have a more personal insight, and we found quality candidates with a range of experience from one to 15 years.”
The health board is employing 32 international nurses every five weeks to help tackle shortages and has said it welcomes more student nurses to help raise staffing levels.
By offering work to international nurses it was helping them to develop their skillset - according to Lynne. She added that nurses were often not given permanent contracts in their home countries as there was a surplus in the country.
Lynne said: “We need overseas nurses here, while for them it’s an opportunity to develop their skills further and experience a different lifestyle. In countries such as India there are a surplus of trained nurses. Ethically, we can recruit from these countries as they are not being left short of quality nurses.
"Often, the nurses we interview have only been given 12-month contracts in their home countries, so they are also looking at more long-term commitments, which we can offer. There are countries which we would regard as being on a red list and are short in terms of nurses, so we don’t recruit from there.”
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