Nine hunger striking Indian nurses who met with the Nursing Council today called for the right to prove their nursing skills were equal to colleagues nursing in kiwi hospitals.
The tired, hungry, but still passionate nurses have been on a hunger strike vigil at the Ghandi statue near Wellington’s railway station since the morning of July 24.
The hunger strike began two months after several hundred Indian nurses marched on parliament over the frustrations they have had in attempting to gain registration in New Zealand, including nursing students and graduates of two bridging nursing degree programmes.
A pathway to registered nurse (RN) registration has now been offered to graduates of those two programmes (see other story), leaving the hunger striking nurses calling for a similar solution to be offered to them.
Some of the hunger strikers are graduates of infection control programmes at Waiariki Institute of Technology and have been offered enrolled nurse registration but say this is insulting, particularly as colleagues with the same diploma are working as registered nurses in New Zealand.
One of those nurses, Sanil Sahadevan, said if the Council believed his three year Indian nursing diploma only allowed him to work as an EN, then the Council should cancel the registration of all other Indians nurses with the same qualification.
“But they know that if they did that, almost all kiwi hospitals would be closed down.”
Another hunger striking nurse, Mathews Jose, said he came to New Zealand from India in 2008 for an English language programme at NMIT, and of the 19 nurses on the programme, 16 were now working as registered nurses. However, he had struggled to pass the English language test requirements, and when he finally could apply for registration late last year, he was told his diploma did not meet educational equivalency.
Currently a caregiver, he estimates it has cost him about $100,000 in fees, travel, and living expenses to get to this point. Jose said he and fellow strikers are not being asked to be given registration straight away but want the same chance as their bridging degree colleagues to be assessed and prove their clinical and theory skills.
Carolyn Reed, the chief executive of the Nursing Council of New Zealand, said she felt for the individuals, and at today’s meeting, she had outlined the options available to them individually.
“They feel as though they are in a desperate situation and they have obviously come to New Zealand with a dream and maybe with a hope that was not well-founded.”
She said the counterside of that was that she believed most New Zealanders would agree “we can’t register people on the basis of their willingness to hunger strike or threaten”.
The Nursing Council’s consistent stand has been that overseas-qualified nurses are advised on the website not to come to New Zealand until they have been accepted for registration (including being assessed as having educational equivalency) and have been offered a place on a competence assessment programme.
But students and institutions argue that the goalposts have changed since the beginning of this year, particularly in the wake of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority assessing one Indian nursing diploma at level five rather than the required level seven.
Reed said there were literally thousands of nursing schools in India and decisions on educational equivalency were made on a case-by-case basis, including subsequent study and clinical experience.
She said she was aware of claims that nurses with the same diplomas and experience as hunger strikers had been registered and the Council was reviewing its records to see if that was correct.
“What we are really clear about is that if one person or some people have been registered in that circumstance, it doesn’t mean you register everyone else.” She added that if it did find the strikers’ claims were correct, it had the legislative power to notify employers and seek extra evidence or order a review of the nurses’ competence.
Meanwhile, the full council of the Nursing Council was also today considering a proposal from Waiariki that infection control students and graduates be offered the same assessment pathway to registration as its bridging degree graduates. The Nursing Council was to meet with both groups of students on Friday, where the decision would be announced.
Keith Ikin, acting chief executive of Waiariki, said he was sad but not surprised that some students had gone on hunger strike as the reality was that many had invested their life savings in coming to New Zealand to study.
Sahadevan said he came to New Zealand after a friend with exactly the same diploma but less experience was accepted for registration and also after his agent in India told him he could become a registered nurse in New Zealand according to Nursing Council information.
He said he spent almost $30,000 coming to New Zealand to complete a six-month infection control postgraduate certificate and pass the English language requirements but had been declined for not meeting educational equivalency.
