With international recruitment of nurses a key priority as the NHS looks to address a staffing crisis, two long-serving NHS nurses who moved from the Philippines to North Tyneside have spoken of why they've loved saving lives in our region.
Both Charlyn Lawton and Jenny Locsin work at the Northumbria NHS Trust - which currently has 38 international nurses, most from Nigeria and India, awaiting visas which would see them start work this summer. The trust is also seeking to double this over the year - while it is not alone with neighbours including Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust also looking abroad for recruitment.
Charlyn is a ward manager at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Hospital (NSECH) in 2015, while Jenny is the newly-appointed lead nurse for international recruitment at the trust. Charlyn first came to the UK in 2005. She had previously spent six years working in Saudi Arabia.
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Charlyn told ChronicleLive : "I had a friend who came to the UK first. She said 'you have to move here'. I ended up coming here and working for the trust. I was in the stroke unit at North Tyneside Hospital. When I arrived it was really good that there were already three Filipino nurses in the unit and this helped a lot. That helped me adjust but everyone was very supportive from the staff to my mentor."
She stayed at North Tyneside for around ten years, before becoming part of the team at the newly-opened NSECH. After being told promotion could be difficult unless she converted her Filipino nursing degree - she took on a UK nursing degree, on an accelerated course, while she has also since been selected for the prestigious Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale NHS leadership programmes.
Charlyn, 48 and from Whitley Bay, was full of praise for the support she had to apply for those - which are highly-competitive. She added: "It is this country that gave me a wonderful opportunity to do what I always wanted to do. There are such opportunities within this trust too, with support for staff like me to go further and be ourselves."
Looking back well over a decade, she added that being thousands of miles from home had been tough. She said: "Initially being so far away from home was difficult, but I think having been in the Middle East helped. We just go back to the Philippines when we can. I was telling my friends how it is so much better now with all the technology to stay in touch. When I was in my early days in the Middle East we had to just write letters!"
She said some of the biggest challenges over her NHS career had been balancing work and her personal life - and also dealing with the occasional ignorance of and abuse from patients. She said: "Sometimes it has been a challenging time. I have two small kids and it can be hard to balance personal life. But you need to now what you want and be willing to sacrifice time for that.
"For us with patients with things like dementia it can see a racist comment or two. But we need to make sure people are supported wherever they come from. It can be really difficult and sometimes at the end of the day that support is all you need."
As for Jenny, her new brief is to make it as easy as possible for the new international nurses to adapt to working for the Northumbria trust. With 38 new staff awaiting visa confirmation and plans afoot to interview at least 60 more, she could have her hands full.
She said: "The trust will really benefit from more international workers. My role also involves pastoral care. We know that leaving your country can be challenging so we need to make sure the pastoral support is there for their wellbeing. It was hard for me when I came here, so I know it can be tough!"
Her job will involve helping new staffers settle into the area, helping them with housing queries and generally supporting them with the day to day challenges of working in a new country. That's in addition to playing a key role in interviews and the broader recruitment process.
When nurses arrive the recruitment agency the trust works with puts them through a boot camp-esque training period in order to ensure they're able to pass the Nursing and Midwifery Council's OSCE exam - which ensures their skills are up to NHS standards.
As for herself, Jenny added: "I came to the North East in 2002. I ended up working in a stroke ward - you experience so many different things just because it's a different country. The people here are very supportive, often in the early days they would say 'it's okay if you don't understand'. But I've been here 20 years and some of the Geordie slang still confuses me sometimes!
"After two years I was promoted - I have always wanted to help nurses deliver the best care they can and set an example for my colleagues. In this role I know that I can give back to the new nurses coming. I will make sure that I am here to guide them."
The trust is currently hiring recruits from India, Ghana, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
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