Nursing Review wrap: stories from around the world

Here are a few nursing stories from around the globe.

Sexual harassment common in the UK

A study in the UK by public service union Unison has found that one in 10 healthcare staff have been sexually harassed over the last year.

The union reported that 64 per cent of respondents were subject to unwanted jokes or remarks while 54 per cent were victims of sexual harassment by colleagues and 42 per cent by patients.

Twenty-two per cent reported that they were victims of sexual assault, with three reports of rape.

Forty per cent of respondents said that the harassment made them want to leave the workforce.

Only one in five of those who said they had been harassed reported the incident, with reasons given ranging from a worry that they would not be believed to fear that the perpetrator would retaliate.

Aussie nurses head to Scotland

Still in the UK, almost 100 Australian nurses could be deployed to fill a nursing shortfall in the north-east of Scotland, according to the BBC.

The group made up of mainly graduate nurses are headed to Aberdeen from Western Australia after an NHS delegation visited the state to sell the idea of living in Scotland.

The nurses sit a computer-based test before travelling to the UK and also take a clinical-based skills assessment before they are registered.

Leesa Kerr, principal workforce advisor for the Department of Health's nursing and midwifery office in Western Australia, told the BBC: "We develop quite a high calibre of nursing staff, and NHS Grampian approached us as they had an under-supply of nurses.

"We actually had an oversupply of graduate nurses coming out, so what that meant was we didn't have enough places in our health services to actually provide a graduate program for them."

From hospital janitor to nurse

In the US, 29-year-old Frank Baez has graduated from the New York University with a degree in nursing.

He originally worked there as a janitor.

Baez arrived in the US from the Dominican Republic as a teenager with barely any English and started working at the University’s hospital cleaning patient rooms, bathrooms and hallways.

This led to a fascination with the medical field, and he worked his way up the hospital support staff ranks before eventually leaving and starting his degree.

Baez was encouraged by the nurses he worked with to apply to NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. He entered an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate with a nursing degree in just 15 months.

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