A scheme designed to help asylum seekers and refugees enter careers in healthcare has finished a successful pilot year, with those completing it explaining how it has supported them.
The Health Care Careers for Displaced People Pilot Scheme has been run by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Wales and funded by Health Education and Improvement Wales.
“The whole scheme was very important if you want to go for any kind of job”
Vennie Muzikiza
Over the last 12 months, the scheme was offered to anyone in Wales who was an asylum seeker or refugee, providing them with information and tuition on joining the healthcare workforce.
This included lessons on life support procedures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), help with CVs and personal statements and simulated healthcare job interviews.
A celebration event featuring 20 of the people who took part in the pilot took place on 4 March at RCN Wales headquarters in Cardiff.
Cardiff resident and scheme participant Vennie Muzikiza told Nursing Times the skills she learnt from it helped her successfully apply for an adult nursing degree course at the University of South Wales, which she started last September.
Ms Muzikiza, who claimed asylum in 2016 and is originally from Namibia, said: “The whole scheme was very important if you want to go for any kind of job… even if you don’t want to go down [the] health route.
“I wanted to be a nurse anyway, so for me it was useful. They showed… how to do CPR, communication [skills] – all the things we did were relevant for my course,” she said.
She highlighted that interview skills, work on confidence and a mock interview helped her join the course.
Ms Muzikiza, who worked as a healthcare assistant (HCA) in Cardiff before joining the course last year, said the scheme has helped take her a step closer to her dream job of being a registered nurse.
She said she has wanted to pursue the career ever since a particularly poorly-staffed shift at work saw her given additional responsibilities, out of necessity, by the nurse she was working under as an HCA.
“From that day, I thought, oh maybe let me consider being a nurse – because I can save people’s lives,” she told Nursing Times.
Isaac Mukisa, originally from Uganda, also took part in the scheme, having arrived in Wales just over a year ago.
He is currently seeking work as a healthcare support worker, and has aspirations to become a mental health nurse, in part due to the skills taught on the scheme.
“[The displaced people scheme] covered quite a number of activities, like understanding how the health sector work and learning other [skills] like communication, confidentiality, safeguarding, money handling, equality and diversity and so on,” he said.
“It also showed how to apply in the NHS… how to pass an interview, how to make your application,” he noted.
He said becoming a registered mental health nurse was his “ultimate goal”, having encountered people facing mental health difficulties as a volunteer at Cardiff-based refugee and asylum seeker charity Oasis.
“At Oasis… we work with people who are, for example, asylum seekers who are just coming [to the UK] and battling mental health issues,” he said.
“Being around these people has taught me a lot and has given me the courage to go into that sector,” said Mr Mukisa.
“These programmes help benefit [are] really important… I think it’s something that I would encourage to happen every year.”
