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Help from Thailand: This is how we combat the care crisis in Austria!
Nurses from Thailand are combating the shortage of skilled workers in Austria. A new training model should help.
Help from Thailand: This is how we combat the care crisis in Austria!
There is a significant shortage of qualified nursing staff in Carinthia and throughout Austria. In order to counteract this shortage of skilled workers, the Cerne family in Klagenfurt founded an innovative structure for recruiting and training nursing staff. The family, which moved to Thailand about ten years ago, has developed a model that brings qualified nurses from Thailand to Austria. This is reported by 5min.at.
The company positions itself not as a classic headhunter, but as a partner for both skilled workers and employers. The focus is on holistic support and international cooperation. Partnerships with Thai universities are used to specifically recruit nursing staff. An important part of the model are German courses, which are offered at levels A1 to B1 to make integration easier for new nursing staff.
Integration and training
Another step to facilitate integration is cooperation with Austrian universities of applied sciences to develop supplementary courses that ensure professional equivalence. The red-white-red card plays a crucial role in this, as it enables earlier entry and accelerated entry into the labor market. However, initially only part-time work as a nursing assistant is possible, as some courses have to be completed in Austria.
The project has the long-term goal of ensuring the availability of qualified specialists in the Austrian healthcare system. A central element is the teaching of intercultural and social skills. Preparatory courses are intended to help Thai professionals familiarize themselves with the Austrian living and working environment. Discussions are already underway with various hospitals in Austria, and the first nursing staff are expected to start working next autumn.
Challenges of integrating international specialists
The recruitment of international nursing staff is seen as indispensable in Germany, as is the case in Austria. There, too, the demand for qualified specialists is continually increasing, and demographic change is exacerbating the situation. As Initiative Pflege Strengthen reports, the integration of new employees requires targeted measures at an operational, social and cultural level.
Although international nurses have high professional skills, they face challenges such as language barriers and dealing with cultural differences. Structured induction, mentoring programs and language support are key measures that support successful integration. Team building measures and an open welcoming culture also promote team cohesion and social integration.
The call for a comprehensive strategy to qualify international healthcare professionals is also underlined by experts such as Thomas Röhrßen and Benjamin Nabert. Both are active in the development of concepts for recruiting nursing staff and are working on creating framework conditions that facilitate the integration and qualification of nursing staff, as explained in the work by Kohlhammer.