On June 19th, we held a very useful and productive meeting with representatives of the Danish Nurses Association (DSR). Elahe and Masoumeh, members of our association’s board of directors, were also present. The president and vice president of DSR once again expressed their surprise and admiration for the establishment of this association and expressed their interest in working with us seriously.
Mr. Haroon, after the recent conference, was deeply impressed and immediately took action. In this meeting, he asked us to specifically state the main needs of nurses. Fortunately, Elahe and Masoumeh, as representatives of nurses, were fully prepared and, by presenting their personal cases, explained well the common problems that many nurses face.
The main topics discussed in the meeting included the following:
The current conditions in Iran and the status of visas for those expiring in the coming months, as well as the need to obtain Godkendelse for those entering the assessment phase.
The need to extend the visa, because the language learning period is short and nurses must work while studying to cover their living expenses.
Improving the quality of language schools and creating specialized training courses for nurses so that they are adequately prepared to enter the assessment.
Increasing job opportunities for assessment, because the number of available positions is currently very limited.
The DSR representatives carefully noted all the points and promised to cooperate and follow up on these areas.
Currently, one of their actions is to try to eliminate the quarantine period for nurses who enter the positive list.
Their suggestion was that, given the limited assessment opportunities, it is better for nurses to first enter the positive list so that they can extend their visas and then look for assessment positions more calmly and change their visa type.
We mentioned all the challenges – including the fact that many municipalities refuse to employ foreign nurses as ylpa (informal assistants).
I explained that I had personally contacted them several times and asked them to make their position clear.
DSR is currently putting pressure on KL (the Danish Association of Municipalities) to make the rules clearer and more transparent.
Regarding the PD3 exam:
The new law will come into effect on July 1st and will not require nurses who are carrying out assessments to have a PD3 qualification.
The law has many details, some of which are not yet fully clarified, but the meeting tried to cover the different aspects.
DSR expressed a strong commitment to working with us and asked us to ask nurses to join the association, especially when the assessment was starting, so that they would receive the necessary support.
They also did not want to talk about the low assessment salary at all.
We pointed out that many employers give two main reasons for not hiring nurses:
Low level of Danish
Budgetary constraints
I asked DSR to consider, if possible, ways to improve the financial situation of nurses in order to provide better conditions for their entry into the Danish health system.