South London and Maudsley proud to welcome new refugee nurses
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is proud to be among the NHS organisations welcoming refugee nurses as part of the NHS Refugee Nurse Support Pilot Programme.
Through this partnership programme, refugees who are all qualified nurses in their home country are being supported to resume their nursing careers in the NHS.
Four nurses from Jordan and Lebanon will be joining our mental health teams across both inpatient and community services.
Vanessa Smith, Chief Nurse, said:
We are delighted and honoured to be part of this programme and to welcome our new colleagues to the Trust.
Our new recruits bring with them a huge wealth of experience and skill which we know will benefit people who use our services, their families and carers.
Over the next few months our focus will be on providing ongoing pastoral support and training. We are strongly committed to developing a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Our new members of staff will be employed as healthcare assistants and health care support workers and will be supported to complete the NMC process to become registered nurses in England.
This pilot programme is being delivered by NHS England and NHS Improvement in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), RefuAid, Reset and Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB).
The earlier stages of the pilot supported refugee nurses already living in the UK. The latest phase of the programme has introduced 27 refugee nurses who were living in Jordan and Lebanon and arrived on 13 January, 2021.
