- Conference
- 2014 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 1 October 2013
- Decision
- Carried
Many of our fellow migrant workers, who are registered nurses in their own country, have been working here as care assistants because they did not obtain the results required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for their English (IELTS) test (i.e. 7 in each section). The results required are of a very high standard– a very high standard in English grammar and English language specific to “England” that will not necessarily leave them best equipped to deal with elderly residents in a care home in rural parts of Northern Ireland or Scotland.
This has been an issue for many of our members. More recently, private nursing homes have been recruiting heavily in EEA countries. The same level of English is not required of EEA members. This leads to difficult situations for all. EEA nurses from Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. have found themselves thrown at the deep end with insufficient English and very little adaptation training. Accidents are likely and resentment builds up, as this seems nothing short of racist discrimination for the non EEA staff who are not allowed to practice their skills.
1)Conference calls on the National Black Members Committee to work with other relevant structures of UNISON to put pressure on the NMC to revisit these criteria and to create consistent requirements to standardise the level of training and English expected of all nurses.