Duisburg hospital seeks nursing staff on the other side of the world

Eight new nurses from the Philippines have recently been working at St. Anna Hospital in Huckingen. The foundation stone for this was laid two years ago. Managing Director Hauke ​​Schild was personally on site in the Philippines three times to speak to the nurses. "Unfortunately, the corona pandemic has set the project back somewhat. We had successfully completed all of our appointments at the German Embassy in Manila, but then the shutdown came in mid-March and the nurses were practically sitting with their suitcases packed," says Schild.

"When we saw the beaming faces of our new colleagues at the airport at the beginning of August, the hard work of the last few months was quickly forgotten," recalls Nicole Welzel, who is responsible for human resources development. "After the two-week quarantine, we made joint appointments with authorities, opened bank accounts, went shopping together and tried out the bus and train journey. We are also planning joint leisure activities with old and new employees," says Welzel. Since the Filipino nursing degree is not immediately recognized in Germany, the eight are currently still at school in addition to their first assignments at their new workplace.

St. Anna wants to use the experience gained when hiring more Filipino nursing staff. "In Germany, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find nursing staff. The experts at the Institute for Economics in Cologne expect a need for 307,000 nursing staff in the next 15 years. For us, looking abroad was the next step in order to counteract the increasing need for staff," says Hauke ​​Schild, explaining the background to the costly search for staff on the other side of the world.