OUH achieves NHS Pastoral Care Quality Award

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) has recently been awarded the NHS Pastoral Care Quality Award. This award recognises the work being carried out by NHS Trusts to ensure international colleagues receive enhanced and tailored pastoral care as they start their NHS journey and onwards in their career.

The award scheme was set up in March 2022, and is a platform which aims to standardise the quality and delivery of pastoral care for internationally-educated nurses and midwives across England. It’s also an opportunity for trusts to recognise their work in international recruitment and demonstrate their commitment to staff wellbeing, both to potential and existing employees.

The NHS Pastoral Care Quality Award is part of NHS England and NHS Improvement’s International Recruitment Programme which supports NHS organisations to increase and develop their international recruitment plans, and ensure new recruits receive high-quality pastoral support. The safe arrival, induction, and provision of support for new people joining the NHS workforce is a major priority for international recruitment.

To achieve the award, organisations must meet a set of standards for best practice pastoral care and, by achieving the award, trusts demonstrate a commitment to supporting internationally educated nurses and midwives at every stage of their recruitment and beyond.

OUH prioritises the wellbeing of internationally-educated nurses and midwives, making sure they have access to appropriate and tailored support during recruitment and after their arrival in the UK. The Trust also has a robust induction scheme in place. 

New recruits are welcomed at the airport and given a hot meal on arrival. They are then taken to staff accommodation where they receive dedicated pastoral support over their first year at OUH. There are also several welcome sessions arranged where the nurses and midwives meet key stakeholders like education teams, managers, and recruitment and retention leads. In addition, international nurses benefit from local inductions and a dedicated training programme to support transition into the NHS.

Paula Gardner, Interim Chief Nursing Officer at OUH, said: "I am delighted that the NHS Pastoral Care Quality award has been given to OUH. This shows the level of excellence we achieve in welcoming our international colleagues to make sure they settle into their jobs comfortably when they are making the UK their new home. I would also like to thank our international recruitment team for their hard work to make sure our new staff are so warmly welcomed at the Trust.  One of our workforce’s great strengths is its diversity, and our international recruits are a really significant part of our OneTeamOneOUH." 

Henrietta Ezeka, International Staff Nurse at OUH, said: "My experience coming to OUH has been very positive. I received detailed email correspondence during my early days which provided relevant information that helped me in settling in. The team I worked with also went the extra mile to ensure I was comfortable, and they were professional in all their dealings despite the fact there were many of us who were new at the time."

Pictured from left to right: Jolphy Joy, Sinju Kuriakose, Pinky Kurian, Judith Kitilit, Noufirath Rahim