Spanish Nurses in the Netherlands

Roca-BHR, a recruiting firm based in the Netherlands, attracted over 800 Spanish applicants in 2012 for their job openings in geriatric care which requires a completion of an intensive course in Dutch, according to Reuters. CliffMuller/flickr Out of the 20 new nurses qualified for the programme, 11 were able to finish several months of training and exams in Seville and then came to The Hague. The nurses are sponsored by Dutch companies. They will begin working as nursing assistants next month, despite having their nursing degrees. The lack of work opportunities in Spain, with 18,000 nurses jobless today, encouraged these nurses to take the nursing aide positions in the Netherlands. There has been a freeze hiring in Spain’s national health system. Maria Angeles Luque is one of the 10 nurses who will be employed in the Netherlands for a monthly pay of € 1,784. She said finding work back home is not easy. The oversupply of nurses in Spain is very different with the situation in Netherlands, which is having a shortage in qualified health care professionals working in nursing homes, particularly nursing aides or health care assistants. After a couple of years, the nurses are entitled to higher-paying nursing jobs.