There is a shortage of nursing professionals everywhere. Hospitals and care facilities are therefore increasingly hiring skilled workers from abroad. But it will take a long time for their training to be recognized by the Free State of Bavaria. Way too long. The first municipally funded “adaptation center” in Germany is scheduled to open on the grounds of the Munich Clinic (Mük) Schwabing in June 2024 – so that skilled workers can be better supported and work faster in their profession.
In 2020, it took an average of 441 days for a nursing specialist from abroad to receive the final notification that they could work in Germany. This was the result of an evaluation by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training. For the federal state of Bavaria, the Free State, as the responsible authority, checks the applications received and the “equivalence” of the training. Measures are then determined to determine the extent to which further training, among other things, is necessary so that the work permit can be issued.
“We now want to make a contribution to ensuring that these further training measures can be implemented more quickly and in a more coordinated manner,” says health officer Beatrix Zurek (SPD). The “adaptation center” should, as she describes the somewhat unwieldy term, be understood as a kind of “VHS for care”. Targeted further training would be offered there, which nursing specialists from abroad would need in order to obtain a work permit for their field. “It is simply important that the applicants can complete the courses quickly and that everything is well organized according to the requirements,” explains Zurek.
At the end there is a knowledge test
The “adaptation center” will be operated by a provider that has not yet been determined and will also be available to all clinics and long-term care facilities. The city of Munich spends around 630,000 euros annually on personnel costs. According to the health officer, there will be up to eight full-time positions at the center. The project duration is initially planned until 2026. In cooperation with the Munich nursing schools, nursing educators and practical instructors, among others, are deployed there. At the end of the training there is an aptitude and knowledge test.
If the test is passed, the result is immediately passed on to the Free State, which can quickly issue the final work permit. In the future, ten people a day will be able to take a knowledge test in the “adaptation center”. “With this process, we very much hope to be able to deploy nursing specialists much more quickly,” says the health officer.
Which building on the Schwabing clinic site could be available for the adaptation center is currently being examined. The center is part of a large package of measures that the city of Munich will introduce to improve the care situation in Munich. The city will spend 7.5 million euros to strengthen professional nursing staff between 2024 and 2027.
Since 2022, the city has worked intensively with the Care Steering Committee and the Care Task Force to launch numerous new projects with the Health Department, the Social Department, the Department for Labor and Economy and the Department for Education and Sport. This includes, among other things, strengthening school social work at vocational schools for nursing and nursing assistance, introducing municipal, annual training monitoring to analyze developments, and setting up a new homepage.