We’ve all seen the horror headlines about the declining nursing workforce since Brexit was announced…

• “96% drop in EU nurses registering to work in Britain since Brexit vote” (Guardian, 2017)
• “Brexit ‘potentially catastrophic’ for the health service, experts suggest in Lancet journal”  (Independent, 2017)
• “Almost 10,000 EU health workers have quit NHS since Brexit vote” (Guardian, 2017)

 

But is it all Brexit’s fault? And if we aren’t getting a steady stream of candidates from the EU, what are our other options?

Undoubtedly Brexit is making the UK a less attractive destination for prospective candidates who aren’t sure if they will be allowed to stay in the UK. Nurses looking to relocate on a more permanent basis are naturally feeling less secure about their future in the UK and that is having a knock-on effect on the number of applicants to the NMC register.

However to put Brexit in perspective, let’s be clear that this is a complex issue and Brexit is only one of the factors at play in what is a challenging socioeconomic and political playing field.

If we’re honest, there was already a nursing shortage prior to Brexit. Nursing was put on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) in October 2015 – almost nine months prior to the referendum. Brexit exacerbated a challenging issue that was already well-established, but can’t necessarily be blamed for causing the crisis. Understandably EU nurses are nervous, but given that all nursing applicants (regardless of nationality) are now prioritised for visas into the UK, it’s hard to see how EU nurses wouldn’t still be welcomed with open arms even if free EU movement is abolished. With this in mind, it is likely that Brexit ‘panic’ will settle down in due course as the situation becomes clearer.

There are also a couple of other factors exacerbating the shortage which could minimise the Brexit impact if they were addressed:

• In January 2016, stricter English Language requirements were introduced for EU nurses which has coincided with the Brexit vote to make it harder to enter the UK. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test has been criticised for being unfair, and irrelevant to  nurses – with a high failure rate. Although the Occupational English Test (the OET) has now been introduced to enable nurses to be tested on more relevant topics, more could be done in this space to enable fully qualified, competent nurses to enter the UK without artificial barriers in place.

 

• Long NMC application wait times are off-putting to candidates. The NMC aim to process an applicant’s document, in 60 days, although it can sometimes take up to 90 days. Nurses impatient to relocate to a different country may opt for a country with faster processing time for convenience and ease of opportunity. 

 

It must also be said that the EU isn’t our only source of quality nursing candidates. Indeed the UK has been recruiting further afield from countries such as India, the Philippines, and Nigeria along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand for many years. There are also a number of advantages attached to recruiting beyond the EU:

• Retention tends to be very high when nurses come in on visas meaning they are likely to stay for at least the duration of their visa, if not longer.

 

• All non-EEA nurses must have a minimum of 1 years’ experience to apply to the NMC register meaning applicants are often more experienced than their EU counterparts.

 

• There is an ample supply of nurses internationally, particularly from countries such as India and the Philippines. In contrast, many parts of Europe are now suffering from a brain drain on their nursing talent as a result of a high degree of competition in the area.

 

• Whereas in previous times, expensive trips out to foreign destinations stepped up the cost of recruiting further afield, now the power of video technology has the power to virtually eliminate interviewing costs.

 

It may be that international efforts further afield need to be stepped up, streamlined, and made more accessible, but there’s no reason why we can’t fill our vacancies with nurses trained outside of the EU.

In conclusion, Brexit is worrying and undeniably a risk for healthcare in the UK and measures must be taken to minimise the impact of these changes. However, there are key actions you can take to make it easier for international applicants to apply, and there is a strong argument for recruiting more aggressively from non-EEA destinations to address the shortfall created by Brexit.

My Healthcare Recruit supports UK healthcare employers in the public, private, and care sector to find international nurses who are a great fit for their organization, by using market-leading video interviewing tools to connect them to our database of qualified candidates. Our innovative approach makes international candidates easier to find and more cost-effective to source than ever before. Find out more at www.myhealthcarerecruit.com