Are nurses being imported to the UK?

World UK

Published

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10376026/Number-of-foreign-nurses-coming-to-UK-doubled-in-three-years-as-NHS-poaches-workers-from-abroad.htmI

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Are Nurses being imported to the UK?

I do not know if the Telegraph is a reliable newspaper. I find this concerning, the reason being, from what I have read Nurses in the UK are not paid a reasonable wage. If nurses are leaving it probably is that that they can find other positions that pay a living wage.

If the UK is importing nurses from countries other than the UK it is because their wages are lower than the UK which is eroding the UK Nurses power to negotiate higher wages. With Healthcare changing in the US I can see that this could be a way to nursing wages.

Specializes in ER.

Just as an afterthought - not all nurses are in a position to stay late at the end of their shift, espcially if they rely on public transport, and/or have childcare issues.

That does not make them a bad nurse.

If there are genuine workload reasons for not getting the meds pass finished, then these need to be identified and dealt with. Blaming the nurses who leave on time will not fix anything.

Identifying why they cannot ( or will not) complete their work on time is the way forward!

Specializes in Critical Care/NICU.

I understand with people that get public transport and children I am one of these nurses. My concern is when people sit down at a desk shopping on eBay on shift and then don't have time to complete basic nursing tasks. We have many good nurses on the unit just there are the odd few that are like this.

I have recently got in to the routine of finishing on time afterall it can add hours on to my day with travelling. So I fully understand people having to leave on time and I would not say anything to these people.

But is it ok to leave on time when you have been sat on the computer shopping and have not provided basic nursing care. This is known to the managers that people do this and nothing gets done because other people sort out the problems. Our nurse in charge on shifts just allows these things to happen.

Specializes in Critical Care/NICU.

I have put incidence forms in regarding these things because they are electronic and can't go missing, I done this because of drug errors and missed administration but told that I was causing trouble. We have also taken to putting incident forms in regarding staffing levels and following this a nurse been pulled in to the office and is no longer working on the unit.

Specializes in Critical Care/NICU.

Regarding

Specializes in ER.

There should be a whistleblowing policy in place, so that you can raise concern without fear of bullying.

Its not foolproof, (I have been bullied, and I was a band 7 at the time, getting bullied by my "team"!!), so it still take courage to do it, but at the end of the day, you have a professional obligation to report substandard care.

Are they using work computers to access ebay?

If so, the IT dept can soon put a stop to that : )

More difficult if they are using their own phones, as you cannot track their personal phone usage.

But persevere, if incident reporting is not producing results, go direct to a senior manager, and talk to a union rep if you have one.

Good luck and keep us informed!

Specializes in Critical Care/NICU.

Don't worry I will continue on my quest to sort the staffing out and well the staff shopping on shift may be a more difficult problem. But yes they are using hospital computers so the IT department could be a good to put a stop to the shopping. Thanks for your info and I will keep you informed. As I said earlier I have considered giving up nursing as I just seem to be under a constant fight to provide optimal care to our patients. I will continue on my fight

Specializes in ER.

I don't know what managerial structures are in place where you work, but sometimes the best place to start is talking to your line manager. Or if you are unsure about them, see if there is a mentorship system in place. If you have a mentor, and report substandard care to them, they have a duty to report it. Or maybe whoever does your appraisal?

But check out the whistleblowing policy, there may be more specific steps you need to take.

And don't be discouraged, you are fighting for the welfare of your patients and the public face of your profession, so you go girl!!

to Ginger's Mom, I am new to AllNurses and I am hoping for advice from an experienced nurse who has worked as a SCNR. Are you still in this role? Can you share your experiences? Thanks :)

I so much agree that UK training is so sub standard. I recently qualified 7 months ago as an adult learner and I have always known throughout my training that is something is very wrong with the curriculum, especially the A&P, we only went through 4 Systems, Cardiovascular, REspiratory, DIgestive & the nervous system out of the whole 12 systems. I felt that the training was quite shallow. I won't necessarily put it down to the students not being smart enough, the students applied themselves to what was required of them to study. I am quite positive that most of us would have been willing to apply ourselves to more rigorous studies if expected of us. I try to do my best post qualification to gain knowledge from different sources as much as I can, even though I wish my training was of a higher standard. It is a shame that our qualification is not acceptable in USA, Canada is giving us a chance by providing a bridging programme.

I am of the opinion that nursing in UK should go back to a general nursing that incorporates all areas, mental health, adult & child, after qualification people can work in their area of interest and increase their knowledge and skills while in that area.

Specializes in ER.
I so much agree that UK training is so sub standard. I recently qualified 7 months ago as an adult learner and I have always known throughout my training that is something is very wrong with the curriculum, especially the A&P, we only went through 4 Systems, Cardiovascular, REspiratory, DIgestive & the nervous system out of the whole 12 systems. I felt that the training was quite shallow. I won't necessarily put it down to the students not being smart enough, the students applied themselves to what was required of them to study. I am quite positive that most of us would have been willing to apply ourselves to more rigorous studies if expected of us. I try to do my best post qualification to gain knowledge from different sources as much as I can, even though I wish my training was of a higher standard. It is a shame that our qualification is not acceptable in USA, Canada is giving us a chance by providing a bridging programme.

I am of the opinion that nursing in UK should go back to a general nursing that incorporates all areas, mental health, adult & child, after qualification people can work in their area of interest and increase their knowledge and skills while in that area.

I am UK trained, and when I studied for NCLEX, I found that I had virtually no knowledge in biochemistry and pharmacology, compared to US nurses.

I recall that our only pharmacology training in the UK was the '5 rights' - right drug, patient, time, dose and route.

I honestly don't recall learning any more than that.

And as for biochemistry and lab values, well, that was "for the doctors, not nurses".

So the UK now imports nurses from countries with US style training, knowing that have sound clinical knowledge and skills that the home-grown nurses do not.

I also see Filipino RNs working as HCAs, because their English language skills are not quite up to standard, and they have failed the IELTS.

Not only is that an insult to HCAs everywhere, (implying that patient communication does not matter), but its also laughable when so many UK trained nurses have poor linguistic skills themselves.

I am tired if trying to read nursing notes which are littered with spelling and grammatical errors. Not only are they difficult to read, but potentially also misleading and therefore dangerous.

I'm not talking about doctor's handwriting here, (that is a whole diffferent ballgame, don't get me started on that one!). but about basic communication.

Specializes in Surg- PACU/Anaes.

I agree, from my observations, degree-trained UK nurses seem to be sub-standard compared to other non-EU trained RN's... so it shouldn't be considered a bad thing!

Specializes in Transplants, MICU.

I find this blog extremely interesting. I work in the US and want to experience travel nursing. The UK is recruiting US nurses as well and after researching it might be a pay cut to move. I've read the annual salary is around 24000 GBP? Is that fairly accurate or an overestimation? Also curious about the perception of nurses in the UK, I've heard mixed things.

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