NHS Professionals:
EU nurses case study
As part of its contingent workforce initiative, NHS Professionals
has developed a programme to recruit suitably qualified nurses
from EU countries with an NMC-compliant training scheme.
The programme is designed to develop and grow a flexible NMC
registered and experienced nurses workforce in geographical areas
where there is a shortage of skills to meet demand. If alternative NHS
Professionals and Trust recruitment initiatives have been exhausted, then
NHS Professionals offers its client Trusts the opportunity to hire workers
from the EU, by investing in the programme.
Candidates are interviewed in their home country jointly by the Trust and
NHS Professionals. Debbie Knight, Deputy Head of Nursing and Midwifery
Education and Practice Development at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust,
stressed the importance of working in partnership with NHS Professionals:
“I went to Portugal with NHS Professionals and was part of the
recruitment team. It is important to do this because the nurses are coming
to work in our Trust, so we had to work together to ensure the recruits
were the right recruits to work for us.”
Prior to the candidates’ arrival
at the Trust, NHS Professionals
provides a thorough orientation
and induction in partnership with
the Trust. This covers elements such
as clinical skills, an introduction to
the Trust and NHS Professionals’
core training. Debbie Knight
said: “Any new registrant to the
NMC register needs an induction
and preceptorship period, so we
organised that for them, which
included basic things, such as
colloquial English that they might
not have learnt before that is
relevant to our area and some of
the technical skills that we use that
they might not have seen.”
The candidates also feel more comfortable relocating to the UK once they
have met NHS Professionals in their home country. Ines Martins Duarte,
Registered Nurse at Queen Alexandra Hospital, explained:
“As NHS Professionals came to Portugal to hire us and to get to know us,
we feel part of a big family here in Portsmouth; we’re not just treated as
workers and everyone has really welcomed us into the organisation.”
NHS Professionals’ candidates are recruited primarily from Portugal or the
Republic of Ireland. They will have completed a four year BSc Degree, which
incorporates a final pre-registration and nine-month clinical placement
programme, similar to the UK post-registration preceptorship programme.
Debbie Knight explains why Portsmouth Hospitals needed to recruit from
the EU:
“We looked at nurses across the whole of the EU, but Portugal has a four
year training programme and is commensurate with the nursing training
that we have here in the UK. They have a really good technical base to their
training and their English is also very good, so we decided to recruit from
Portugal.”
NHS Professionals aims to attract NMC Registered Nurses from the EU,
generally at Band 5, many of whom will be relatively newly qualified.
FR/057/10/13
Fabiana Fernandes Da Costa,
Registered Nurse, Queen Alexandra
Hospital, shares her experience
of moving to Portsmouth: “NHS
Professionals helped us to relocate
here and gave us lots of support;
they gave us paperwork about how
we should dress, NHS Professionals’
Code of Behaviour, and they
introduced us to our wards, our
Sisters and our Matrons. NHS
Professionals is always there; they
have an office in the Trust and are
only a phone call or email away.”
The EU nurses have had an extremely positive impact on the wards. Debbie
Knight explains:
“Their English is excellent; they have the most amazing care for the
patients and have integrated really well with the teams. The teams love
them and I’m always being asked when the Portuguese nurses are coming
over from Portugal, which is really positive feedback for them.”
Hazel Hartnett, Inpatient Matron, Wessex Renal and Transplant Service at
Queen Alexandra Hospital, has also received positive feedback from the
patients on her ward:
“Patients within my service have absolutely loved having the EU nurses on
the ward, they are friendly, always smiling and their care is outstanding. We
have nurses from a range of countries who work at our Trust and within our
wards, and I think it enhances the care they give and the team spirit.”
NHS Professionals gives the
nurses the flexibility to do their
placements on different wards
or even move to a different Trust
across the country if they aren’t
enjoying living in a certain area.
However, this is uncommon and
candidate retention is higher than
90%
The EU nurses have helped Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust expand its
workforce and have found the nurses are a real asset to the Trust.
Fabiana explains why working in the UK appealed to her,
“What attracted me the most was the language. It’s easy for us as we had
a lot of articles in English at university and we developed more written and
spoken English. I also wanted to stay within the EU and Portugal is only a
two hour flight if I wanted to go home.”
To help with the nurses’ integration to life in the UK, NHS Professionals
encourages the EU nurses to watch English television programmes so they
can understand local colloquialisms.
Working in partnership with NHS Professionals, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS
Trust has built on its experience through its first cohort of nurses and has
refined its induction process, making it a lot more streamlined. Debbie
Knight has found this partnership working very useful:
“I work very well with the two Trust Liaison Coordinators within the Trust. I
have been out and recruited with them and we have learnt from each other.
Some of the things that the nurses fed back to say worked well or didn’t
work well, we’ve enhanced or changed. Having the opportunity to have
those discussions has been really beneficial.”
At the end of the one year placement, candidates may continue to work
through NHS Professionals, charged at standard NHS Professionals contract
rates. Fabiana is just one nurse who is continuing to work at the Trust and
with NHS Professionals at the end of her placement:
“I am staying on my ward (renal transplant) once I have finished my 12
month contract and will continue to work through NHS Professionals. NHS
Professionals is the only organisation that allows us to be flexible and, being
newly qualified, it’s perfect for us as we get to experience different wards.”
Client Trusts that have invested in the
EU Recruitment Programme:
• Oxford University Hospitals
NHS Trust
• Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
• Whipps Cross University Hospital
• North Devon Healthcare
NHS Trust
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals
NHS Trust
• Royal Berkshire NHS
Foundation Trust
• East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
• Princess Alexandra Hospitals NHS Trust
• Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust