The latest intake of overseas nurses to work in Gwent waved goodbye to the Spanish sun for a two-year stint in Newport.

A group of 22 Spanish nurses touched down at Bristol airport at the weekend prior to taking up their posts in various departments of the Royal Gwent Hospital next month.

They are all newly-qualifiied and will work in surgical and medical wards at the same rate of pay as locally-trained nurses.

A Gwent Healthcare Trust spokesman said: "We are working closely with Spain because of a special agreement between the Assembly and the Spanish government.

"We are successfully recruiting trainee nurses locally but because of recent developments, like our new cardiology department, we have a shortage of qualified nurses.

"In Spain there are not enough jobs for the newly qualified nurses, so this is a sensible solution."

The new recruits were given a whistlestop tour of the city sights on Saturday by senior nurses, which took in the Riverfront, Newport Castle and the Transporter Bridge.

Afterwards they were greeted at the hospital by Dr Brian Willott, chairman of Gwent Healthcare Trust, who impressed his new recruits by welcoming them in Spanish, before moving on to Caerleon for a specially arranged tapas buffet at the King's Arms.

A Spanish TV crew recorded their every movement for an ongoing documentary which will track one of the nurses, Obdulia Dicende, from Almeria, at regular intervals throughout her time in Newport.

They are the second batch of Spanish recruits after 18 joined the hospital staff last October.

Senior nurse Caroline Rowlands, who travelled to Madrid in October to interview candidates, says the new intake have skills which will be "very beneficial" to the current workforce.

"They are taught during their training advanced nursing techniques such as canulation, which is putting needles in, taking blood, and advanced life support," she said. "They will help us cut down on the usage of bank agency staff, which is very expensive."

Mrs Rowlands, the recruitment and retention coordinator for Gwent Healthcare Trust, explained the need for overseas recruitment.

"There has been a significant increase in the intake of trainee nurses in British universities," she said, "but we still haven't reached a point where there is sufficient volume of newly registered nurses coming through into the workforce to cope with an expanding NHS."

At the end of last November there were 153 vacancies for nurses in Gwent.

Accommodation in shared houses, all within 15 minutes' walk of the hospital, is paid for by the trust.

They will also receive six hours of English classes every week for the first month's induction, and have an option to stay on at the end of their two-year contract.

There are also a number of nurses from the Phillipines working in Gwent after a recruitment drive there in recent years.