Nurses' groups condemn overseas recruitment

A WORLDWIDE nursing federation has backed criticism of Government-sponsored overseas' recruitment campaigns which poach staff from developing countries.

The Geneva-based International Council of Nurses (ICN) warns governments against shoring up their own crisis-ridden health services with imported workers.

"Aggressively recruiting nurses or students into a dysfunctional health/nursing system is neither cost-effective nor ethical," a position statement from the ICN reads.

It ties in with remarks made earlier this week by Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) general secretary Liam Doran who said recruitment in countries such as India and South Africa was "ethically questionable".

"Basically, the INO and the ICN are saying India as a whole needs all the nurses it is training to staff its service, and certainly South Africa needs to retain all its nurses - yet these are the countries where Ireland has turned its attention.

"In South Africa recently, 70 nurses graduated from a certain school of nursing and 58 were moving to Britain or Ireland, but that country does not have anything like the number of nurses it needs. We are training enough nurses to meet our needs."

The ICN said it acknowledged "the adverse effect that international migration may have on health care quality in countries seriously depleted of their nursing workforce".

Mr Doran also criticised what he said was a lack of effort by Irish health service employers to retain staff trained here.

"It is unjustifiable that we are not doing enough to retain our nurses. Okay, nurses have traditionally used their profession to travel, but whereas before they used to return here after a few years, that is not happening anymore."

While pay and conditions were a factor in losing staff, the biggest issue was the employment ceiling, Mr Doran said.

"It means agencies cannot offer full-time employment at a time when we are one year short of having no qualifying group at all."

The nurse training programme has changed from three to four years and 2005 is the transition year when there will be no graduations.

The ICN said it "condemns the practice of recruiting nurses to countries where authorities have failed to implement sound human resource planning and to seriously address problems which cause nurses to leave the profession".

It warned that "before resorting to aggressive recruitment campaigns, government and employers faced with the challenges of a shortage need to address the contributing factors relevant to their situation".

The Department of Health says the Government has taken a number of substantial measures to recruit and retain staff. The number of nursing training places has increased by 70% since 1998; financial assistance is now given to nurses pursuing part-time degrees and specialist courses; and since 1998 nurses have been paid for overtime (previously they were given time off in lieu).