Twelve experienced nurses joined in July and August and will work in our community hospitals and mental health forensic wards to support us in delivering excellent care.

The Trust embarked on an international recruitment programme earlier this year to attract 70 highly-skilled overseas nurses to work in community health and mental health wards. So far 22 nurses have been recruited from countries including India, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.

Matt Edwards, Director of Clinical Workforce Transformation at Oxford Health, said:

“I am delighted to have these new nurses start with us and I wish them all the best settling into their new teams and roles.

“We provide excellent care at Oxford Health and recruiting nurses internationally is supporting us to do this. International recruitment has a proven track record and has worked well across nursing for many years in the NHS.

“We welcome these experienced colleagues from overseas who can immediately strengthen our workforce, providing resilience and flexibility which will have a positive impact upon the wellbeing of our teams and patients.

“Oxford Health recruits internationally but also continues to focus on the development of homegrown talent through our highly successful nursing apprenticeship and training programmes.”

Pictured: New recruits in training

The new recruits are currently working on wards but are not yet ready to carry out full nursing duties until they undergo an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). This will enable them to be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and proves they meet the high standards needed to be able to practice in the UK. Once they pass, they will become band 5 nurses and will receive three-year contracts to work with Oxford Health.

If you want to work with Oxford Health at any of our locations, and have the commitment, energy and skill to make a real difference to people’s lives, please take a look at some of our vacancies on the Oxford Health careers website here.