The international recruitment of nurses as a strategy for managing labour shortages in Germany: the case of Hesse

摘要

As hospitals and elderly care facilities in Germany struggle to fill vacant nursing positions, many have turned to international recruitment as astrategy for securing skilled labour. Using quantitative structural data sources, this paper considers the potential benefits associated with recruiting nurses from abroad to manage labour shortages in the federal state of Hesse. Qualitative interviews with foreign-trained as well as domestically trained nurses explored common challenges associated with integrating amultinational workforce.The interviews indicate that the recruitment of nurses to Germany is very important in the hospital sector. However, in the specific fields of elderly care and paediatric nursing, the potential to secure skilled labour is lower.Optimizing the potential of international recruitment requires accompanied integration management in healthcare and elderly care institutions. Furthermore, monitoring and research activities are necessary to better understand recruitment and migration trends and to incorporate these trends into healthcare management.