Welcome to tweet chat 1 of 5 covering a variety of topics exploring how we support and encourage our internationally educated colleagues to #StayAndThrive 

#StayAndThrive Programme Background

The #StayAndThrive programme is a cross-regional research inaction pilot involving 41 organisations across the  North East and Yorkshire and South West regions. The program aims to uncover what really matters to international recruits and how the conditions can be created where international recruits feel a strong sense of belonging, are able to thrive in their personal life and professional life whilst progressing in their career. The program is working in collaboration with the Looking After our PeopleRetention program and has commissioned research by Huddersfield University to develop evidence-based recommendations to inform retention strategies for international nurses working in the NHS.

The #StayAndThrive tweetchats will provide us with an opportunity to understand contributing factors in creating conditions where our Internationally educated colleagues feel a strong sense of belonging and can thrive in their personal life, professional life, and can progress in their careers. Following on from understanding these factors we'll look to discuss how we as individuals and organisations can improve the short and long-term living and working conditions to help our internationally educated colleagues to #StayAndThrive.

We very much welcome everyone to join our #StayAndThrive chats including both new and settled internationally educated colleagues and of course the many of us who care alongside them every day.

Chat Info: Being Prepared To Help International Nurses #StayAndThrive

There are dozens, or according to a google search hundreds of thousands, of quotes related to the value and importance of being prepared, did you have one pinned up during your nursing studies? Do any of these quotes apply to inviting somebody to uproot their life and move to work in a different country and in a highly skilled and regulated role?

Food for thought…

Being prepared is a two-way process, meaning that it is not just internationally educated colleagues that need to be prepared to arrive in the UK, but we as employers, colleagues, friends, and peers also need to be prepared to welcome and support internationally educated colleagues in settling into life and work in the UK.

Language, banking, housing, law, shopping, insurance, buying a car, driving, relaxing, tax - daunting isn't it!

When starting a new job, there are lots of things that you have to prepare for, who do you report to, how will you get there, what bank will you get paid in to, when will you have your break – where will you have your break? When and how will you get your uniform, how do you even know what size to order? Have you packed everything you need for the day? What will your responsibilities be- how will you know this? Who can you go to for help?....now imagine this but you’re in a different country, speaking a different language, the culture is unfamiliar. There is now even more stuff to prepare for…how will you understand the new culture and how will your culture be understood by others?

On top of this there are other things to prepare for such as UK weather, differences in UK dialect, British cuisine/ supermarkets and British currency/contactless payments!

We aim on this chat to focus on not only the nursing aspect but all aspects of being prepared for internationally educated colleagues to work and live and #StayAndThrive alongside us. 

We'll be asking the following questions during this tweet chat 

• When should we start preparing to welcome our international recruits?
• If you were moving to work in another country, how would you expect your new employer to be prepared for you?
• What do you think your organisation does well to be prepared for your international peers?
• Whose role in an organisation is it to get the organisation prepared for international recruits?
• What role can you play in being prepared to support your international nurse colleagues?
• What role does the leadership team play in welcoming the international recruits?
• The international recruits give up so much, leaving their country, culture, family, friends, & work to come and work for the NHS, how can we ensure they feel welcome?
• How can we make everyone (Staff, Patients, Visitors) recognise the sacrifice, the value they bring?
• How can we prepare international nurses for life and work in the UK?
• How can we prepare staff to support international nurses?

Title picture credit: Google search