Overseas nurses in the National Health Service: a process of deskilling

This paper shows that overseas nurses (OSN) recruited to UK hospital trusts become deskilled in technical aspects of clinical practice.

Existing research reports that many newly recruited OSN are prevented from using technical skills acquired in training abroad, to the detriment of the National Health Service (NHS) and the concern of the nurses themselves.

The author conducted case study work in three NHS hospital trusts in the northwest of England. The findings reported are part of a wider investigation into the assimilation(1) of OSN from the Philippines, India and Spain into NHS hospitals. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with members of four groups of actors: managers, OSN, home nurses (HN) and mentors, which were analysed thematically. Results. The research confirms the finding that many OSN are prevented from using technical skills in the UK, but also suggests reasons why this is so. The finding of deskilling emerged strongly in all three cases and is singled out for discussion in this paper.

The experience of OSN highlights ambiguity surrounding the role of the nurse in British hospitals. This arises partly because OSN tend to be recruited to the bottom grades of nursing in the NHS, where their technical skills are underused.

Segmentation within the nursing hierarchy contributes to the conflicting messages and mismatch of expectations experienced by nurses at the ward level, regarding the role of the nurse.