The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s role in integrating internationally educated nurses (IENs) in the UK health care

This chapter discusses the role of the UK statutory nurse registration body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), in integrating Internationally educated nurses (IENs) into UK healthcare. Critical race theory (CRT), Post-colonial theory (PCT), and Intersectionality theory (IT) are the theoretical perspectives employed to inform and critique existing nurse registration structures, processes and practices in UK healthcare. The chapter reviews the history and challenges of the existing policies and procedures regarding IENs’ recruitment, retention and integration. I argue that the NMC has contributed to the continuity of the nurse shortage in the UK and the persisting issue of discrimination in UK healthcare.
In this chapter, I draw on my experiences in the NHS in different roles and capacities and on interviews undertaken as part of my PhD, which explored the lived experiences of nurses of Nigerian heritage on their integration into UK healthcare post-NMC registration. I discuss the NMC’s role in addressing nurse shortages in the UK since the inception of nurse regulation in 1919. I link the NMC’s role in formulating policies on nurse training and recruitment with changing immigration policies since its creation and how it has overtly facilitated discrimination in nurse recruitment and retention in the UK. I discuss the impact of the NMC’s policies on immigration and integration on the lived experiences of nurses as they adapt to life and work in the UK.
My reflexivity from my PhD study richly influences this chapter. Reflexivity is “…the process of a continual internal dialogue and critical self-evaluation of researcher’s positionality as well as active acknowledgement and explicit recognition that this position may affect the research process and outcome” (Berger, 2015: 220). Reflexivity enables the elucidation of positionality and how formulating views concerning individuals' values, interests, and beliefs may impact the research objectives (Cousin, 2009; cited in Ugiagbe, 2022). I have used my reflective journal as a valuable and positive means for constructing knowledge (Brydon-Miller and Coghlan, 2014, cited in Ugiagbe, 2022) and as a tool to encourage my reflexivity (Mann, 2016) to use my previous knowledge and understanding further to interpret (McConnell-Henry et al.; 2009) the role of the NMC in integrating IEN into the UK healthcare system. The chapter concludes that effectively integrating IENs is a significant ingredient for addressing nurse shortages and improving quality patient care in the UK healthcare system.