INTERNATIONAL nursing students who feared they would be deported at the end of the month because of changes to nursing registration rules have won a reprieve, after a breakthrough in negotiations last week.

The Australian Nurses Federation estimated that about 400 international nursing students who graduated midyear were caught by changes to registration rules that took effect on July 1, and were no longer eligible for registration.

Under the newly established Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia all international students from non-English-speaking backgrounds were required to achieve level 7 English language competency as part of the registration process. Under the old Victorian standard, there was no requirement to achieve level 7.

The nurses caught by the change studied nursing at Australian universities, in English, alongside local students, and had been required to successfully complete Australian clinical placements.

Those nurses - including many offered jobs in rural and regional areas desperate for more health professionals - would have been forced to leave Australia when their student visas expired at the end of August.

But the NMBA met on Thursday night and resolved to allow the nurses to stay, granting temporary registration until May 2011 to allow them to obtain skilled visas and complete the English language tests.

The NMBA agreed to honour the former Victorian board's advice to overseas qualified nurses who are completing short courses that they will be registered without further English language testing if they successfully complete their course.

The NMBA also committed to review its English language standard.

But the English language testing requirement will still affect hundreds of nursing students who are now completing their courses and will have to undertake additional tuition to pass the exams.

ANF Victorian president Lisa Fitzpatrick called on universities to fund the extra tuition for students.

Source: The Age