Overseas NHS Workers Day 2022: Celebrating our colleagues from around the world

We have reached the second Overseas NHS Workers Day and we would like to celebrate the wonderful contributions of our colleagues from countries overseas.

Today we’ve spoken to Ullas Joseph and Boby Joseph (no relation!) who are both from Kerala, a state on the south-western Malabar Coast of India. We are delighted to be welcoming new nursing colleagues from this region in the coming months.

Ullas (pictured left) moved to the UK in 2007 to join his wife who already moved here for employment. He joined Sheffield Children’s in 2012 as a Biomedical Scientist and progressed to Specialist Biomedical Scientist in 2014 after gaining a Specialist Diploma, then after a couple of promotions he has been Chief Biomedical scientist and Deputy Laboratory Manager since 2018.

He said: “I haven’t worked anywhere else for longer than three years and I’ve now been at Sheffield Children’s for 10 with no intentions of leaving! We are a family and I’ve always felt welcome here.”

Boby (pictured right) said: “I joined Sheffield Children’s in 2016 as an MRI Radiographer. I hail from a small town in Kerala, India. Before relocating to the UK, I was working with the Ministry of Health, Kuwait. It’s my passion for the profession which prompted me to relocate to Sheffield.

“Working with children has always been my aspiration. Since joining the Trust, I have always got support and encouragement from my colleagues and my department has always made me feel at home. I enjoy each and every minute I spend at work, which is my second home. I am sure the new overseas recruits will also get the same love and support from the NHS.”

The Trust will be welcoming 65 new nurses from overseas over the next few months – 50 experienced in children’s nursing and 15 mental health nurses. They will work in the Emergency Department (ED), theatres, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), the wards and across our mental health services.

The first group, who are all from Kerala, will arrive at the end of May, with further cohorts coming to the UK every few weeks after that until October.

It can be a daunting prospect moving to a new country to work and we hope colleagues across the Trust will give our new colleagues the same warm welcome to the UK, Sheffield and the Trust as Ullas and Boby have received. We’ll be organising some activities for colleagues to welcome the new nurses to the Sheffield Children’s family so keep an eye out for news of those.