Airedale NHS Foundation Trust held its first ever ‘OSCE Success’ event on Tuesday 11 July to celebrate its 100% pass rate.
The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is an assessment of competence that is required before internationally qualified nurses can be registered as a nurse within the UK.
Since the OSCE training programme began at Airedale in 2019, the Trust has welcomed 15 cohorts of international nurses. All 161 of Airedale’s OSCE recruits have since passed the exam.
Once the exam is passed, candidates receive their PIN from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), confirming that they are fully registered.
The event was held in the Lecture Theatre at Airedale General Hospital and was attended by over 75 of the successful OSCE recruits, their trainers, members of the Trust Board and colleagues who supported the recruits through their OSCE journey.
To kick off the celebrations, Amanda Stanford, Chief Nurse, Sajan Sathyan, Deputy Director of Nursing, Catherine Redman, Divisional Director of Nursing for Medicine, Annie McCluskey, Divisional Director of Nursing for Women’s, Children’s and Specialist Services and Gintu Thomas, Senior Sister, took part in a traditional lamp lighting ceremony that symbolises positivity, light and knowledge.
Amanda Stanford, Chief Nurse, said: “It’s important that we celebrate the amazing success that our OSCE recruits have achieved over the past few years.
“Many of the nurses moved to a new country and left their family back home to take on this programme and the first three cohorts even volunteered to work on a temporary register to support the Trust during the pandemic alongside their studies.
“We hope that this event shows them how valued they are within the Trust and the positive difference that they have made to the Airedale community.”
During the event, some of the OSCE recruits performed group dances, songs of gratitude and shared their journey from the original interview to receiving their PIN and joining the Trust as Registered Nurses.
The event was organised by Senior Sister, Gintu Thomas, Charge Nurse, Avinash Ganesh and Junior Sister, Mothy Aravind: “We wanted to put together an event that recognised the hard work and dedication that international nurses have put in throughout their OSCE training programme,” says Gintu.
“It was also an opportunity to thank the programme trainers, Liz Golden and Mark Stebbings and all of the staff who supported the OSCE candidates along the way.
“Airedale is so open to other cultures and it was great to be able to hold an event that was filled with music, light, dance and food.
“We’ve received some great feedback about the event and hope to hold more like this in the future.”
Avinash Ganesh began his OSCE training in November 2020 and is currently a Charge Nurse in the Cardiac Catheter Unit at Airedale: “We wanted to gather or recruits together to celebrate the harvest of the hard work we have all invested into our OSCE journey.
“I was over the moon when the Trust asked us to organise the event and it was a pleasure to be the master of ceremony.
“It all went brilliantly and it was the talk of the hospital the next morning.”
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