Derbyshire Community Health Services welcomes international nurses
Derbyshire Community Health Services recently welcomed three internationally educated nurses to its team. The nurses from Kerala, India are employed as part of The Mental Health Integration Programme, which is being piloted across the Midlands by NHS England.
Mental health nurses Ramya Vellapalli, Greeshma Rajendran and Jovanna Mary are based on Snowdrop Ward at the Walton Unit, where they are supported by ward manager Dawn Bradley and clinical educator Helen Nixon. Ramya, Greeshma and Jovanna said they have received a warm welcome from their new colleagues in DCHS and share some experiences of their new roles and life in Derbyshire.
They said: “Everyone working in DCHS has been so helpful, and the pastoral and training support has been really good. Everyone we are working with on the ward is so helpful, they all understand that we are new to the country and ask us all the time if we’re okay. They also give us advice about things outside of work and are very kind, doing things like giving us lifts home when we leave at the same time.
“Being a nurse in the NHS is very different to being a nurse in India. We have already had a lot more training opportunities given to us, and it seems there is a lot more opportunity to progress through the nursing and management system. There is also a lot more autonomy for nurses here and the respect given to us by other members of staff is very different.”
All three nurses said they had noticed some cultural differences regarding community and shared the aspects of home they have been missing.
Ramya said: “In India everyone knows their neighbours and there is always somebody around – here everyone is always in their own house, and you don’t see many neighbours in the street. But we do like the nature of the people and have noticed that they often speak to each other in the street or in the hospital, people say hello when you walk past them, and wave thank you in cars. We also like queueing! In India there is always a rush of people to get on a bus or a train or in a shop, but here everyone queues politely.”
“We are missing our families very much,” said Greeshma. “We are also missing the food; in England we are having to cook every meal as we aren’t able to visit relatives to eat so we are missing being treated every now and again and have a night off cooking!”
Jovanna added: “We are missing our festivals; since we have been here we have celebrated Onam and Diwali but we haven’t been able to join any festivities.”
The Trust has also linked the nurses into a wider network of colleagues to support the settling in and transition process.
For an international nurse to be able to register in the UK, they must meet minimum nursing standards, which include undertaking the Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) – a comprehensive and detailed set of practice exercises covering the nursing process, professional behaviours and attitudes of a registered nurse, key clinical skills and communication. Invaluable support has been provided by the clinical practice facilitator and pastoral support officer for this programme to ensure OSCE was successfully completed and that Ramya, Greeshma and Jovanna settled in to life in the UK.
Following Ramya, Greeshma and Jovanna’s recruitment they were also enrolled on an intensive training course in India to prepare them for employment as registered mental health nurses in the NHS.