The Agency for Patient Safety has removed the backlog of unprocessed applications, which at the end of 2021 was as high as 4,000, Berlingske reports.

This means that:

Approximately 100 applicants have obtained authorization.

Approximately 2,360 have had their training etc. approved. and can complete the next steps in the authorization process.

Approximately 1,520 of the applications have either been withdrawn by the applicant or have been refused.

Stupid not to onboard healthcare professionals

In recent years, the board has also received a further 4,850 applications, which are processed within a few months.

“It is stupid if we do not accept well-qualified healthcare professionals who want to lend a hand in our healthcare and elderly care. Because even if we cannot solve the lack of healthcare personnel by getting more foreign healthcare professionals to Denmark alone, they can help remedy the problem,” says Minister of Health Sophie Løhde to Berlingske.

There is a major staff shortage in the Danish healthcare system.

Although there are already several people with an international background working in health care, Denmark still needs doctors, nurses and social and health assistants.

Will start working at Rigshospitalet 1 September

One of them is Maiken Frost Burden, who was born and raised in Denmark and is a Danish citizen.

She traveled to the USA as a young person, where in 1995 she completed training as a nurse – a bachelor’s degree in nursing – from Pacific Lutheran University in the state of Washington.

She has worked for 28 years at a hospital in Tacoma caring for and treating cancer patients, partly in wards and partly in outpatients, where she has given chemotherapy.

Frost Burden has also taken a master’s degree in nursing, writes Berlingske.

When she returned to Denmark with her American husband a few years ago, she encountered a huge problem in relation to Danish legislation.

She did not have detailed documentation for her internships and hours in a number of different departments during her education at the beginning of the 1990s.

The case caused a stir and helped pave the way for a political intervention at the beginning of this year, where the requirements were relaxed to facilitate the recruitment of health workers from abroad, which the health service so desperately needs.

Rules are changed

After the case received a lot of attention, it was decided in June that it should be possible to include further training and extend the evaluation appointment, so that they can get enough hours to get a Danish authorization. This now benefits Maiken Frost Burden

At the beginning of August, she got the green light to be able to start a so-called evaluation appointment, which is the last station before she can finally get the coveted authorization.

“Now it’s finally happening. I am almost completely in shock,” says Maiken Frost Burden to Berlingske.

On September 1, the Danish-American nurse begins the evaluation appointment at the cancer department at Rigshospitalet, which will pave the way for her to finally be authorized to work in the Danish healthcare system.

“If the evaluation appointment goes well – and I expect it will – then I can work to the full extent and on the same professional terms as Danish-educated nurses,” says Maiken Frost Burden.

Nurses on their way from India and the Philippines

At the same time, the government expects that within a short time many health workers will arrive from India and the Philippines and start working.

“It is my ambition and my expectation that within the foreseeable future it will be possible to welcome, for example, Indian or Filipino nurses in Danish hospitals or in care for the elderly,” says Education and Research Minister Christina Egelund to Berlingske.

At the beginning of 2024, the government announced that it would enter into “partnerships” with countries outside the EU for targeted training and recruitment of healthcare professionals.

Specifically, agreements would be made with India and the Philippines to train sosu employees and nurses for the Danish healthcare system.

According to Christina Egelund, no binding agreement has yet been concluded, but we “are well on our way and have come a long way,” she informs Berlingske.