JUST weeks after causing controversy with a plan to "dumb down" nursing qualifications for Bermudians, the island's health community has changed tack, seeking Australians with nursing degrees using an overseas recruiter.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board has outsourced the search to Australian firm CPG Consulting, which this week posted an ad for "Intensive Care Unit or Operating Room" nurses on the Internet.

The advert specifies that Australian nurses willing to move to Bermuda would be awarded "two- to three-year contracts" at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

This is despite the new Nursing Pathway Programme unveiled in December by Health Minister Nelson Bascome, which seeks to rectify the current shortage of Bermudian nurses. According to hospital CEO David Hill, about 70 per cent of our nurses are recruited from overseas.

The new programme, a joint project between the Health Ministry, Bermuda College and the BHB, attracted the ire of current and former nurses as well as Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson, who claimed the Government was "dumbing down" qualifications.

The arrangement will soon see locals qualifying as nurses after a shortened course of study, and without having to complete the standard four-year Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree nor gain experience in a large overseas teaching hospital.

However, this week's Australian ad explicitly states that expat applicants for nursing jobs in Bermuda must have "a degree in nursing", as well as experience in either an intensive care unit or an operating room.

Mrs. Jackson called this overseas recruitment drive "a good thing", adding: "I'm happy they're insisting on nurses with degrees. They should expect and demand the same level of qualification from our own population.

"You can't hold yourself up as a first class facility if you have staff walking around calling themselves registered nurses without nursing degrees. If they are demanding degrees from expats, why aren't they demanding degrees from Bermudians?"

CPG Consulting placed the advert on Seek, Australia and New Zealand's number one job-hunting web site, which boasted more than 2.79 million unique visitors in the month of September. As well as specifying the necessity of a degree, the ad boasts of KEMH's "world-class" facilities and Bermuda's "expatriate lifestyle".

The Seek advert also mentions the "superb staff facilities" at the hospital – where, until recently, rotation doctors were being forced to sleep on blow-up lilos on the floor due to a lack of adequate space.

"You can't say the staff facilities are superb, nor that the hospital is world-class," Mrs. Jackson said.

"Some of the unrenovated wards are substandard beyond anyone's imagination."

The Shadow Health Minister added that while she supports the recruitment of qualified nurses from overseas, she believes the hospital would have better luck attracting top staff if the Government offered subsidised housing for new arrivals.

"In the same way that there is housing for new police officers, there should be housing for nurses, especially those who have come all the way around the world from Australia with little money," she said.

The Seek advert listed the salary expectation as "$61,301 US to $77,800 US", prompting Mrs. Jackson to question whether Bermudian nurses without degrees could expect similar pay.

"If they're going to take in Bermudians without degrees from this Bermuda College course, what will they be paid?" she asked.

"Will they get the same as qualified nurses with degrees? The hospital desperately needs nurses, but they need to rethink the Pathways Programme."

This is not the first time the BHB has actively recruited foreign nurses on international job web sites.

In December, there were three roles listed on MedHunters.com's Caribbean network, including a position in Bermuda's Mental Health Services and a maternity nursing job at KEMH. The BHB also placed an ad on CaribbeanJobs.com recently, looking for a full-time intensive care nurse.

In a statement as the Mid-Ocean News went to press, a BHB spokesman said: "As a result of global shortages in the nursing profession, BHB has a robust recruitment policy in place, which includes standing arrangements with international employment agencies, who source medical professionals on our behalf."