It seems that the best bet for an overseas nurse aiming to get a job in Hong Kong is to take up a nursing course in the city. That’s a conclusion we can draw if we look at the experience of a few highlighted applicants coming from Canada and Australia, as featured in the South China Morning Post.

Foreign applicants need to pass written and practical exams before obtaining a license to practice. This requirement applies even to those with professional nursing experience overseas. While this seems sensible as a cautious way to screen applicants, there are policies that only discourage applicants from pursuing a nursing career in Hong Kong.

Rachel Chan, an applicant from Canada mulling a move to Hong Kong was asked by the Nursing Council to fill in 141 hours of “theoretical deficiency” but when she asked what courses were needed to make up for the shortfall the council couldn’t recommend which course to take, applying a hands-off policy on a subject it is presumably responsible for.

Rachel’s friend Lam Tsz-ting already got her nursing license in Australia last year. But she was not allowed to take the exam simply because the name on her certificate appears as Tsz-ting Lam. Given the dire need for more nurses to serve the shortage and minimize blunders, the perceived red tape and incompetency of the nursing authority is only going to make things worse. Out of 29,110 registered nurses in Hong Kong, only 6 percent obtained their qualifications outside of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s solution for shortage of nurses could hinge on overseas trained nurses, willing and capable to do the job. Sadly, the process of admitting foreign talent is more complicated, if not more confusing, than other countries in need of foreign nurses.

The Hospital Authority, which has 20,000 nurses, is losing about 800 a year to the private sector and overseas. It aims to recruit at least 1,200 nurses in the coming financial year but expects 1,100 posts to be filled, according to South China Morning Post. As more local nursing students graduate in the next few years, the deficit in talent is expected to ease. But until that time comes, the urgency to hire foreign nurses should be a priority. And by easing on admission rules, local nursing workforce numbers gets a major boost. Otherwise, the public has to deal with the common excuse local nurses will use as reason for medical blunders.