””In autumn 2022, Mariana (in the middle) from Mexico City lands at Berlin Airport. And searches for her suitcase on the baggage carousel — in vain. Miriam Mueller, Managing Director of Startcon, remembers:
“So after the welcome, we quickly bought the basics. Only to set off again shortly afterwards. Because with a new start like this, there are simply a lot of things missing. And to make matters worse, she had also caught coronavirus while travelling. Despite this, she remained positive the whole time.” And her lost suitcase arrives a few days later after all.
Mariana works as a theatre nurse in a Berlin hospital. After a long search, she is able to swap her initial accommodation in the nurses’ home, which is practically furnished with a table, chair and bed, for a larger one-bedroom flat in Friedrichshain. Over a dinner, together in a Vietnamese restaurant just round the corner, Miriam and Mariana take stock two years after their last meeting.
Was the job in Germany a good decision?
“Definitely! I feel very comfortable and am happy with my decision. Even if it was complicated.” Mariana laughs. “Preparing for the recognition exam as a nursing specialist and being familiarised with the work at the hospital — and then arriving and settling in. It was all a bit much at once.”
Before the exam, Mariana completed a course at Startcon — 13 intensive weeks. “Mariana was an extremely fast learner and completed the course in a very short time,” reports Miriam enthusiastically. “It’s usually two months of theory, interspersed with practical phases on the ward. I would now say that two or three months on the ward before starting the preparation course would be good to get used to the work. But, understandably, hospitals don’t want their new employees to have the status of auxiliary staff for long. They then earn less.”
Sometimes there are also tears
Sometimes the course turns into coaching. “In some cases, there was a need to talk about the culture shock after class because everyone was so emotional. The first time on the ward, the familiarisation, settling in, that’s exhausting. There can always be problems, even with colleagues,” reports Miriam.
Mariana was different. But she has also had her own experiences: “As a rule, things go very well with colleagues and patients. But unfortunately there are also other situations. We foreign nursing staff — from Latin America, Romania, Russia or Ukraine — make up an estimated 50 to 60 per cent.”
From Mexico via the Netherlands and Poland to Berlin
Mariana already knew in 2004 that she wanted to work in the healthcare sector abroad one day: “A friend’s father was a radiologist and told me about the shortage of nurses. There isn’t one in Mexico. However, the payment there is poor.” But first she went to the Netherlands as an au pair and studied economics in Warsaw. She then returned to Mexico to finally realise her dream with another degree. “Because I wanted to go abroad and knew about the shortage of nursing staff, I switched from economics to health. Around 2014, I saw offers for geriatric nurses for the first time. But I didn’t necessarily want to do that.”
With her bachelor’s degree in nursing, she initially gained three years of experience as an operating theatre specialist in plastic surgery. “There were often several operations at the same time. I was in the operating theatre for a strenuous eight hours without a break. And I actually had other plans. So I resigned and shortly afterwards discovered a German job advert for nurses on LinkedIn. That was on a Wednesday. I applied on Thursday and got the call from Germany on Friday.” No coincidence, Mariana believes.
What is a “Nupsi”?
She passes her German exam at the Goethe-Institut in Mexico with distinction. “Mariana was a very special candidate. She spoke excellent German when she arrived.” Nevertheless, the first few weeks in the operating theatre are a challenge. “It can be difficult on a normal ward. But in the operating theatre! It would be complicated even as a native speaker. It’s always loud, the atmosphere is tense. We don’t understand each other so well when we’re wearing bonnets and face masks. Some speak German as a foreign language, others speak dialect. Technical and colloquial language mix. What is a “Nupsi”, for example? It can be anything, any little thing. This can be tricky, no matter how hard you work and how good your language skills are.”
A question of recognition
Mariana’s Mexican bachelor’s degree is not fully recognised by the German authorities — due to the different practical and theoretical modules compared to the German training. She therefore has to take an exam to prove that she now has the same level of knowledge as a German carer. As this is a training occupation in Germany, she still does not automatically have a bachelor’s degree with the specialist title. “However, the German authorities are now endeavouring to grant foreign specialists a bachelor’s degree. We are supporting Mariana in this endeavour. After all, four years of Bachelor’s studies and one year of compulsory community service in hospital plus practical operating theatre experience versus three years of training does make a difference.”
And Mariana is highly motivated. “Working in the operating theatre is often stressful, but it’s also nice, a world of its own. And in an emergency, things have to move quickly.” Miriam is impressed. “It seems like you really enjoy doing it.” Mariana beams. “Absolutely!” “It was clear to me from the start: Mariana knows what she wants, she’ll go her own way.”
Winter is not a problem for me
“Have you arrived well in Berlin?” Mariana nods. She recently moved to the angiology department and is looking forward to her new role. In her private life, moving into her new flat is one of her favourite experiences. “It felt like winning the lottery. It was also great to rediscover the city. I had a lot of good experiences. Only the people are sometimes a bit more open and friendly in Mexico.”
“What did we do well as an agency, what would you have liked differently? Do you have any tips for colleagues who want to get started?” Miriam wants to know. “Oh yes, speak better German. I would also have liked to have prepared myself for the technical language in Mexico.” According to Miriam, Startcon now also offers courses for candidates abroad. Mariana would also have liked to have known beforehand that it can be difficult to fulfil her wish for a larger flat after a successful start. In the tight housing market, she only found her new home through her network at work. “Fortunately, Startcon took care of everything else. The paperwork and dealing with the authorities would have really overwhelmed me.”
If I could make a wish
Miriam would have liked to have had personal mentors for every new nursing staff member in order to overcome the teething problems. “Recruiting projects should actually be set up many years in advance. With special wards and well-trained carers, where the new recruits first arrive. There are great ideas in this field. But some hospitals often only start recruiting abroad when they are already at their limit.”
Mariana recovers from her strenuous shifts with plenty of sleep and Krav Maga. Or she visits friends in Brussels, Leipzig, Hamburg and Poland. “Poland is my second home.” In addition to Polish and her native Spanish, she also speaks English, Dutch and French. She has already been back to Mexico twice in the meantime. Does she miss anything here in Germany? “Yes, my family and the food. Most of all the beans. They are okay here too … but they can’t compare.”