Supporting Internationalisation of Traineeships in the healthcare Sector

In healthcare studies which include professional regulation, student learning in clinical practice is an essential part of the curriculum. Curricula are designed with close input from the national health services, and on graduation, students are expected to have sufficient experience to practice independently within their profession.

Simultaneously, a shortage of healthcare professionals in certain countries (e.g. in 2012, WHO estimated that the UK alone required an influx of around 40,000 nurses) is stimulating mobility. In these cases, healthcare professionals who trained within the system they intend to work in, are able to immediately integrate to deliver care, unlike other professionals coming from abroad, who require extra time and resources to integrate them with national specificities of the health system.