If an expatriate named John Smith gained a professional qualification in Hong Kong which was not accepted in his home country because it was in the name of Smith John, with the family name first as in the local style of address, Mr Smith - or is it Mr John? - would have most people's wry sympathy. However, if the profession concerned were an essential one suffering from a dire shortage, you would also have to wonder what the authorities were thinking. Sadly, we need look no further than home for a real example.
The profession in this case is nursing, in which a shortage of staff is reflected in delays in hospital admissions and surgery and high nurse-patient ratios. An application by Lam Tsz-ting to sit the registered nurse exam was rejected because the name on her nursing degree certificate from Sydney is Tsz-ting Lam. Incomprehensibly, the Nursing Council did not rule out a classmate whose name on her certificate is also in reverse. Lam's problems did not end there. After being asked to find a notary to confirm her identity, she says she was told she lacked 161 theory hours, involving a year's study. The classmate faced a similar hurdle when she returned to Hong Kong after four years' nursing in Canada.
Such anecdotes, though not uncommon, may not necessarily mean that the council goes out of is way to make it hard for someone with overseas qualifications to gain a practising certificate. Hong Kong has a world-class health system affordable to all. The professional qualifications and competence of nurses are critical to maintaining it. The council is responsible for upholding standards.
That said, the fact remains that Hong Kong suffers from a shortage of nurses, with little prospect of meeting it from local sources until more student nurses graduate in a few years' time. That is why the Hospital Authority has set up a task force on wages and career prospects in an attempt to give nurses more incentive to stay in the public system instead going to private hospitals or overseas. The authorities should also look at the role of the recruitment and accreditation system in the shortage of nurses.
Nursing, like teaching, is a mobile profession. There is strong competition from other countries for well qualified and experienced people. Nurses naturally seek the opportunities this creates for travel and more experience. The importance of assessing and verifying the integrity of qualifications and experience gained elsewhere is self-evident. The council is right not to lower standards. But subject to that proviso, it is wrong if it does not try to be proactive in securing the services of good people. The obstacle courses that the pair face to obtain a practising certificate would discourage most people. The pattern is consistent with the accounts given by frustrated applicants in the past.
A council spokesman said Lam's overseas certificate was printed entirely in capitals, making it hard to determine the family name, and that she and the classmate who was accepted might have chosen different electives in their nursing courses. That is unconvincing. Credentials should be thoroughly checked anyway, which would have resolved the identity question at least.
