Nurses in a hospital. Photo: Laura Ukkonen / Lehtikuva
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A group of foreign nurses and doctors dismissed during their probationary periods by the wellbeing services county of North Savo have accused the authority of discriminatory treatment, misleading recruitment practices, and public defamation.
The ten nurses and two doctors were part of an international recruitment programme that brought them to Finland last year to help address staffing shortages in the region’s healthcare sector. Their contracts were terminated within months.
North Savo’s welfare authority said in a public statement that the dismissals were due to concerns about the workers’ language proficiency and professional competence.
But five of the nurses, interviewed by Yle, strongly rejected those claims. One said the dismissal had nothing to do with her skills.
“I don’t think the reason for the dismissal was my skills, but something that is more difficult to prove: discrimination,” she said.
The group, whose identities are known to Yle but withheld from publication, described a pattern of isolation, hostility, and inconsistent expectations in the workplace. Some said the situation began affecting their mental health.
“We weren’t allowed to show what we could do,” another nurse told Yle.
The nurses had recently completed a degree in Poland and came to Finland through a recruitment programme involving the North Savo wellbeing services county, the regional ELY Centre, and BBI Finland.
Although hired as nurses, they were not permitted to perform many nursing duties due to Finnish legal restrictions. Under current regulations, healthcare workers must hold certification from Valvira, Finland’s supervisory authority, which includes passing the national Finnish language test (YKI). Without this, tasks such as medication distribution and unsupervised care are prohibited.
“I asked if I could distribute medicine, and they said no,” one nurse recalled. “What if I hadn’t asked, and had done something illegal?”
Despite being restricted in their roles, some were allowed to carry out more advanced tasks under supervision, including inserting IV cannulas.
The group also said they had received mixed or no feedback before their terminations, while some were even praised during their probation.
One nurse, given the pseudonym Mary, told Yle she expressed doubts about participating before travelling to Finland. She received email reassurances from the employer, but said the reality was far from the promised support.
Yle reviewed several email exchanges that suggest the nurses were told mentoring would be available and that communication would occur in English. In practice, mentors were instructed to speak only Finnish, and the mentoring programme was ended after one month.
Mary said she spent around €20,000 preparing for and joining the programme. The cost included fees, training, and relocation.
“Many friends warned me not to come to Finland, but I trusted the employer. I thought they were committed to us. Sadly, those who warned me were right. Finland turned out to be a very hostile place,” she said.
She also said the experience felt closer to being trafficked than professionally recruited. “We were brought here, given no chance, then blamed,” she added.
Some reported overt hostility from local colleagues. “They didn’t want to work with us, didn’t give us tasks, and ignored us,” one nurse said.
The group also criticised media coverage, which they said wrongly focused only on Zimbabwean nurses, ignoring the diversity among those dismissed.
The county declined to comment further when contacted by Yle. In an earlier statement, Sami Remes, a spokesperson for the North Savo authority, denied discrimination and said the decisions were made to protect patient safety.
The affected healthcare workers said they are now struggling to recover both professionally and financially, with their reputations damaged by the public statement linking them to incompetence.
HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
