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Germany lack of personnel in the medical service system

Germany lack of personnel in the medical service system

Germany faces a shortage of around 25,000 healthcare professionals. Rostock Hospital Center has created the successful model of staff withdrawal from Vietnam.

In the University Medical Center of Rostock from 2018 they started looking in Vietnam for employees. The approach of this center also focuses on helping new non-German staff members to integrate smoothly.

Vietnamese Thi Ngoc Lan Pham is an intensive care nurse. The work is intense, but she faces the added challenge of working in German; a language she had to learn first.

Thi Ngoc Lan has been working at the University Medical Center in Rostock for almost five years. She completed her training as a nurse here and now also works as a cross-cultural trainer for newcomers.

Thi Ngoc Lan has come a long way in pursuit of a better future. Germany did not recognize her nursing degree from Vietnam, so she had to retake qualification courses here.

Every year, up to 25 young people from Asia, mostly women, receive training here. What's unique is that most stay at the University Medical Center—largely because of the clinic's retraining program, which also includes arranging housing, helping with paperwork, and offering German courses that cover typical areas of nursing.

The focus of Rostock's recruitment in Vietnam is no coincidence. When the city still belonged to East Germany, up to 1,500 Vietnamese lived here and were called "Vertragsarbeiter"

Thi Ngoc Lan Pham says she rarely misses Vietnam. She has created her own German society in her work.

Thi Ngoc Lan Pham has now completed five years in Germany, where he can apply for German citizenship. Her plan is to stay here and bring her boyfriend from Vietnam./ DW

 

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