First international midwife cohort joins Royal Surrey | News

This month (November), Royal Surrey welcomed its first cohort of eight midwives from Ghana and Nigeria.

Jo Mountjoy, Chief Nurse, said:

“We are delighted to welcome our midwifery colleagues who have joined us from Ghana and Nigeria. International colleagues are an integral part of teams throughout our Trust and we simply couldn’t deliver compassionate, high-quality care on the scale we do without them. We are very pleased they chose to join our Trust.”

The international midwives joined the Trust after seeing a recruitment campaign earlier this year. They are part of a wider cohort of 33 new colleagues, including newly qualified and experienced midwives from the UK, to join the Trust’s outstanding-rated maternity department.

The midwives, who are all qualified practitioners in their home county, have taken part in a welcome week with the Trust, before beginning a 10-week induction and exams programme to fully equip them for working on a UK midwifery ward.

To help them adjust to life in the UK, the new colleagues will benefit from the Trust’s high-quality pastoral support, which was recently recognised with an NHS Pastoral Care Quality Award.

Maria Chambers, Acting Lead for International Resourcing, said:

“We’re thrilled our new international colleagues chose to bring their skills to our Trust. Since the summer, we’ve been working to prepare them for their move and are continuing to help them to feel at home in Guildford.

“The group is now commencing a 10-week induction and we will be supporting them through their preparation for their Midwifery OSCE exams so that they are fully equipped to work on a UK maternity unit. Their teaching timetable combines small study groups, one-to-one support, mock exams as well as the opportunity to shadow experienced colleagues so they feel fully prepared to take their OSCE exams in January.”

The international focus of the midwifery campaign mirrors successful recruitment campaigns for other NHS professionals at the Trust, including nurses, allied health professionals and non-clinical professions, which have led to more than 400 new international colleagues in the last 18 months.