More overseas nurses for Harlow

Kathy Gibbs has been a nurse for 45 years and works at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The 62 year old admits the next decade is gonna be tough for the profession, but says she's confident there won't be a shortage of nurses despite fewer people training in recent years.

A team of senior nurses have travelled to the Philippines in the hope of attracting more registered nurses to work at the hospital in Harlow, 10 years after the team's first visit to the country.

Around 123 of the hospital's 1142 nurses are from the Philipines at the moment - that amounts to around 10% of nurses there. Of the original 72 who came to Harlow 10 years ago, 40 are still working at the Princess Alexandra.

Kathy thinks there are fewer 'homegrown' nurses because of other career opportunities and says the profession's changed in that their job role's taken in some of the tasks historically done by doctors.