The factors impacting personal and professional experiences of migrant nurses in Australia : an integrative review

Objective: This integrative review presents an exploration of the literature on the factors that impact on internationally educated nurses’ personal and professional experiences during their journey into the Australian health workforce. Background: Over the past few decades there has been an increase in the number of internationally educated nurses migrating to work in other developed countries. In Australia, these nurses have been sought to curb nurse shortages to support the forecasted ageing population. Using a validated integrative review framework, databases such as Scopus; MEDLINE; CINAHL; PubMed; Web of Science and Google Scholar were searched for qualitative studies published before 2016. Reviewed articles were analysed for data that was reduced, compared and synthesised and outlined in a figure. Methods: Using a validated integrative review framework, databases such as Scopus; MEDLINE; CINAHL; PubMed; Web of Science and Google Scholar were searched for qualitative studies published before 2016. Reviewed articles were analysed for data that was reduced, compared and synthesised and outlined in a figure. Findings: From the twenty-two articles that met the inclusion criteria-eight factors were identified. The majority (n = 6) of these were challenging factors common to personal and professional experiences, which include: pre-migration processes; recognising and adapting to a new reality; living and working in the English language; economic and social stress; discrimination and feeling like an ‘outsider’ and resolving issues and finding meaning in the new reality. The remaining two factors facilitated nurses’ experiences personally with personal support systems and professionally with recruitment and working conditions. Conclusion: This review reports that internationally educated nurses predominantly face challenging factors that impact their lives socioeconomically in and out of the workplace. Policy makers, managers and educators working with these nurses could develop strategies that minimise challenging factors and maximise facilitating factors leading to successful transitions.