Are international nursing students disadvantaged by UK patients?

International students bring billions of pounds annually to the UK through higher education. Although nursing students may not contribute as significantly in monetary terms as traditional graduate and postgraduate learners, they do, however, bring with them other benefits in terms of wealth of experience, diversity and cultural capital, often looking after client groups sometimes marginalized by mainstream society. The reality is that many nursing homes and care homes simply would not function without internationally recruited nurses contributing to our health service and the wellbeing of society. The author of this article is a module manager for a Nursing and Midwifery Council regulated Overseas Nurses Programme, which runs up to four times per year at a large Faculty of Health, Sports and Science in South Wales. Anecdotal evidence from class disclosures by international nursing students provided the rationale for this independent enquiry. Listening to verbal accounts suggested that internationally-recruited nurses were experiencing episodes of 'unfair treatment' by patients under their care when undertaking the clinical practice component of the programme.