Refugee Nurses course features on BBC Morning Live

LJMU’s acclaimed ‘Refugee Nursing’ course made the headlines again in a feature on BBC1’s flagship Morning Live programme.

The course prepares refugees from Syria, Palestine, Africa and elsewhere to work in the NHS which has a shortfall of 40,000 nurses.

More than 100 refugees have now joined the NHS from the course, run exclusively by LJMU, and coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Morning Live, which attracts 1 million viewers, and is presented by Gethin Jones and Kym Marsh, picked up on the story which shows LJMU’s outstanding partnership with the NHS.

In a five-minute package, the BBC looked at the contribution of a South African nurse Phyllis, retiring at the age of 88 and how “resilient and determined” young nurses from abroad were picking up the baton and making a massive contribution to care in the UK.

The programme interviews two LJMU ‘graduate nurses’ Yasin, from Syrian and Reyan, from Palestine, who are now employed as support nurses in local hospitals after completing the four-week course at LJMU.

Reyan said: “Everyone knows the NHS, working for the NHS is like a dream.”

'Great resilience'

It also speaks to Steven Colfar, director of nursing for the north west for NHS England and NHS improvement, who was instrumental in setting up the course with LJMU’s Sean Mackay and tells the BBC that recruits come with fantastic skills and great resilience.

Completion of the course, places the nurses in line for frontline work with various NHS employers across England. Graduates are now working towards achieving registered nurse status.

The Refugee Nurses programme won the 2021 Global Good Award in the Community Partnerships category.

It was also praised by Minister of State for Health Edward Argar who attended a ‘graduation’ event LJMU’s Faculty of Health in October 2021 when he said the project was a fantastic example of innovation and collaboration.

Watch the feature on Morning Live (BBC iPlayer), 14 March, (9 minutes) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015fmp/morning-live-series-3-14032022