We are proud to be welcoming international nurses to our Trust from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The first group of 29 nurses will join us this month, followed by a further 40 in April. All 163 nurses will be with us by the end of May.

Three years ago, we had more than 350 Band 5 nursing vacancies. By this summer, once all the international nurses and our student nurses are in post, we will have none. A Band 5 nurse is a junior nurse, they are often newly qualified or have gained experience as a registered nurse in their country of origin. 

These nurses will prove invaluable in supporting our teams to care for patients as we continue to respond to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. They will help us as we restart our routine services, as well as ensuring we are prepared for winter pressures later in the year. 

In recent years, we’ve put a huge amount of work into the recruitment and on boarding of our international nurses. We have a dedicated nurse who is focused on looking after these recruits.  Before each nurse arrives, they contact them regularly to check how the process is going and answer any queries they have.

When the nurses arrive they are greeted by our recruitment nurse who takes them to their furnished accommodation that has all the essentials they need to settle in after a long journey.

We ensure all our nurses have UK phone cards, with access to Wi-Fi, so they can contact their family/loved ones as we know moving thousands of miles away is not easy. The nurses are also provided with pastoral support from our award-winning Senior Intern team. 

The Senior Intern team are experienced nurses/midwives with a wealth of knowledge to support newly recruited nurses navigate the challenges of hospital life when they are new to the role. Since our Senior Intern scheme started in 2017, the percentage of nurses who leave within a year of joining has decreased from 24 per cent to under 7 per cent. The ground breaking programme recently featured in a BBC documentary where the team highlighted how this new initiative is supporting newly recruited nurses.

Our work in this area was also recognised with a ‘ Best International Recruitment Experience Award’ at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards last year.

We secured funding for theses nurses from the NHS England and Improvement team. They are joining us from the Philippines, India, Nigeria, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Jamaica, Kenya, Ghana, Singapore, Pakistan, Barbados, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Our Chief Nurse, Kathryn Halford, OBE (pictured above), said: “We are delighted to be welcoming these new nurses from all over the world to our hospitals.  Our priority is to deliver safe, high quality care for our patients. The international nurses that join our Trust will help bolster our current nursing workforce to ensure we are providing the best care for our patients amid the on-going pandemic and beyond.

“International nurses form a significant portion of the UK’s nursing workforce. Whilst we have an excellent grow your own apprenticeship programme and have high numbers of student nurses wanting to join our Trust, the recruitment of these international is a huge support. I know our teams will do everything they can to help these new nurses settle in and make them feel at home.”