Indian nurses likely to lose their jobs in UAE
Kerala sends the maximum number of nurses to UAE
Due to a new educational qualification requirement, the ministry of education in UAE is now denying to take any accreditation obtained outside the Gulf region.
Several Indian nurses are likely to lose their jobs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to a new educational requirement – a minimum requirement of Bachelor’s degree in Nursing for the registered nurses. This is coming after numerous Pakistani doctors were deported from their job as UAE revoked the recognition of qualifications earned in Pakistan. However, the nurses with diploma degree, who will continue, are now required to acquire the Post Basic BSc Nursing Programme from universities in the UAE accredited by the ministry of education (MoE) by 2020.
Several nurses who enrolled for the programme in different universities are facing another issue; their equivalency certificates are getting rejected. The MoE in UAE is only giving the equivalency certificates for diploma obtained from the state of Kerala, which is the only nursing council, recognised by UAE.
Kerala sends the maximum number of nurses to UAE. The irony here is that even though most of the nurses are from Kerala, they have acquired their diploma from outside Kerala, according to the sources.
This has made a huge impact to the nurses who joined the Post Basic BSc nursing course with high hopes of continuing their work in the UAE. Nurses are paying AED 55,000-75,000 for the different courses. Due to this crisis, the nurses are demanding urgent intervention.
“Most of us have more than 10 years’ experience in the UAE and sponsor our families. Many have been holding senior positions. We have high hopes that both Indian and the UAE authorities will take urgent measures to solve this crisis,” Nurses said to Gulf News.
On regards to this issue, V Muraleedharan, the minister of state, external affairs visited Sharjah Auditorium on October 16. There he met the aggravated nurses and explained that a list has been submitted of various nursing courses recognised by the Indian Nursing Council to the UAE’s ministry of education to help issuing the equivalency certificate.
“We have provided the requirements that the UAE government has been asking for and I am sure due consideration will be given to the documents provided by us and I hope that there will be positive outcome to this issue and a solution will be found in a very short span of time,” said V Muraleedharan.
Muraleedharan also promised the nurses that he will meet the minister of health and education, UAE in his next visit scheduled on November 7.
