Celebrating our International Nurses in Gloucestershire
On Friday 30th September 2022, we celebrated our wonderful International Nurses with Afternoon Tea at The Queen’s Hotel, Cheltenham, in collaboration with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Meeting the Nurses
It was wonderful to meet so many of the Nurses we have successfully placed with the Trust. It was especially interesting to talk to them about their journey to the UK; how far they have travelled to be here, how they found the overall experience of applying for a job with the NHS, their growing relationship with us and our support in finding them the right role and helping them settle in… For many, coming here is a first time, completely new experience!
And, it may come as no surprise that a main topic of conversation was the UK weather!
Our amazing Nurses!
Celebrating our International Nurses with The Queen’s Hotel afternoon tea, in collaboration with Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – our collaborative partners
We also had the opportunity to spend time with our fantastic partners at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust who have provided such amazing support on our hugely successful, collaborative project that involved delivering cohorts of Nurses for them in as little as 6 weeks from the recruitment request. The direct and positive impact to the overall vacancy rate was immediate, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Trust for many years to come.
Our Head of Permanent and International Recruitment, Trushar Patel, who is always so deeply and personally involved with the recruitment of our International Nurses, was also there to personally thank everyone from the Trust, and the Nurses themselves, for their hard work and commitment in making this collaboration happen.
Enjoying afternoon tea with all of the International Nurses who have joined Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
A great start to the day
The day started with welcome drinks for both the Nurses and the Trust stakeholders. The Nurses were delighted to be greeted with a goody bag, specially compiled by us here at ID Medical, and a raffle ticket for our prize draw that would take place later in the afternoon.
Tea and prizes and with the new Gloucestershire Nurses
After having time to mingle, some of the Nurses took part in a video chat before we all made our way to our afternoon tea.
The celebration was opened with a welcoming speech from Deborah Lee, Chief Executive of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Trushar Patel. And then, a fabulous feast occurred!
We were delighted to see how much the Nurses enjoyed the towers of sandwiches, platters of scones with cream and jam, bowls of donuts, scrumptious brownies and mini cheesecakes along with tea and lots of chocolate!
This was truly an experience to remember, especially as many of the Nurses hadn’t tried a traditional afternoon tea before.
It was a special day and wonderful to hear lots of different stories from different backgrounds.
The fun continued with our fantastic prize draw for our International Nurses and the three lucky winners were:
Neethu Chacko – who won a Spa day for two
Aparna Thankamony Suresh – who won a Hotel Chocolat gift set
Ajeena Varghese – who won a Body Shop gift set
We hope all our lucky prize winners enjoy their treats!
The Nurses also had the opportunity to talk to members of the Trust and to tell us more about their experience so far…
It was such a lovely day and one we will all remember! Thank you so much to everyone who attended, and for all the amazing work you do looking after our nation’s health.