Topic: Refugee doctors find success through supported placement
Refugee doctors find success through supported placement
Within the NHS there are specialist programmes for refugee healthcare professionals (RHPs). Forward thinking organisations understand they can often be a quick solution to plugging skills gaps in healthcare services.
REACHE North West is an award winning education and drop-in centre for refugee and asylum seeker health professionals in the North West of England. It helps its members re-enter their profession in the UK by helping them secure training, advice, guidance and work placements. REACHE is based at Salford Royal Hospital (formerly Hope) and operates as part of the Salford Royal Foundation NHS Trust. In May 2008 it was awarded `Outstanding Learning Provider in the Health Sector’ at the National Institute of Adult Learning Continuing Education (NIACE) Adult Learners’ Week Awards.
The challenge
To work with RHPs, enabling them to regain confidence and clinical experience through suitable placements. The aim is to help refugee doctors get back into their profession and gain confidence, so they can apply for and obtain posts in the NHS.
The solution
REACHE has put together a wide range of support for refugee healthcare professionals. They help doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and allied health professionals with:
REACHE recognised that many refugee doctors need to rebuild confidence and the best way to do this is to get back into practice in a supported clinical environment. It developed a Clinical Apprenticeship Scheme to provide an opportunity for job-ready refugee doctors to work as an honorary Trust House Officer in supported three month posts. During the post, the refugee doctor spends four days a week on a participating hospital unit working alongside other healthcare professionals. They also attend a day release course at REACHE ‘Preparing for Work in the NHS’, covering topics such as communication skills, breaking bad news, assertiveness, critical reading, audit, presentation skills, interview skills, prescribing, and dealing with death.
Crucially, each participant in the Clinical Apprenticeship Scheme is ‘job ready’ as they already have their GMC registration, permission to work, and have passed their PLAB 2 (medical practical) course.
The result
The programme has delivered outstanding results:
Dr Jane Wainwright is a consultant who has been involved with the programme since 2005. She explains how it helps participants get to know the NHS, a vital first step if they are to progress and secure employment:
“It is very rewarding to see someone who, at the start, is uncertain about what will happen and what the future holds, and then build up a relationship with them over the three months they are attached to our unit. As we guide the doctors through the system, we can see them building confidence and developing an understanding of how to deal with patients in the ‘NHS way’, which tends to be more negotiated than paternalistic.”
Mike Cheshire is a consultant from Manchester Royal Infirmary who has worked with the programme since 2006. In his experience, every participant has settled down and overcome potential barriers such as weak written language skills. He says that treating the refugee doctors as part of the team is vital, because for them, the priority is to simply get back into medical practice:
“Seeing the doctors develop from being very nervous and unsure to being able to contribute, getting a job and being able to smile again makes it all worthwhile. It shows that the programme works, and that you can retrain refugee doctors.”
The success of REACHE's Clinical Apprenticeship Scheme shows what it is possible to achieve, not just with refugee doctors, but with all refugee health care professionals.
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