Category: Odd + Funny Author : Steven Hodson Posted: March 20, 2009
Tags : australia, england, Health
British nurse Julie
Dutton with her husband
Dale Mervin and their
son Connor
Listen as one living in a multi-cultural country I can understand the need for language proficiency testing especially when you are going to be dealing with the health and welfare of people seeking medical care; but I think at some point common sense should come to the foreground. It is even idiotic when the person coming into your country where English is the primary language also comes from where the damn language was first spoken.
Yet the twits in charge of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Board of New South Wales in Australia have dictated that Ms Dutton, a specialist in cardiothoracic intensive care, would have to sit an English language test for her application to be processed. They say this is the standard procedure for any immigrant applying to be registered or enrolled with the NSW Nurses and Midwives Board – as of a new policy introduced January 1.
The written and spoken tests will cost £131 ($280), and Ms Dutton was told that she will have to wait until June to sit them because there are no available places before then.
She was told that despite her obvious proficiency in the English language there were no exemptions.
“I think it’s just ridiculous,” Ms Dutton told The Times. “I am English, I was born in England, I speak English, I have a British passport, I was educated in Britain and I got my nursing degree in Britain, so I just couldn’t believe it when they told me. I think it’s just a joke – this is just a mad, stupid policy.”
Source: Times Online
I only have one thing to add to this stupidity
![Crazy Objects That People Have Swallowed and Inserted [Medical Infographic]](http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2011/07/Objects-Inside-Person-Xray-100x100.jpg)
Mar 20, 2009
A proficiency exam is absurd, but I can possibly see a situation in the medical arena, or in the flight control arena, where a particular national phrase may cause confusion to someone from another country. In a high-risk field such as nursing, a misunderstanding could have severe consequences.
However, such a situation can be handled via a one-hour familiarization course such as “How to Speak Australian,” the purpose of which would be to point out a few things to an arrival from England, Scotland, Canada, the U.S., etc.
Of course, any arrival from the United States would need an extra hour of instruction for a spelling lesson.
Mar 20, 2009
Not that silly actually, Australians trying to live permanently in the UK will have to sit an English competency exam also. A bit silly no?
Mar 20, 2009
when the official language of either country is English and the person involved is an English speaking native of either country then it is plain stupid on either side of the fence.