Search results

The purpose of the study is to explore, describe and develop a greater understanding of overseas Black and minority ethnic nurses' experiences of, as well as the impact of, their experiences on the quality and service delivery in the UK's NHS.

Phenomenology was adopted to explore overseas nurses' experiences. Twelve face‐to‐face interviews were completed and all participants involved were interviewed in their homes. Participants originated from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Findings revealed five themes such as building ties, reflecting on experience, moving on, reduced confidence and lack of support.

Despite negative experiences, participants indicated that time working in the NHS was useful and contributed towards their development. In recruiting and retaining overseas nurses in the UK NHS, it is important to address their needs – demonstrating NHS commitment to a diverse workforce with ultimate effects on patients' care.

This article shows that some overseas nurses are unhappy in the clinical environment and as a consequence they decide to seek alternative workplaces where they feel that they may be valued.

To explore the experiences of overseas black and minority ethnic nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) in the south of England.

Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 12 overseas black and minority ethnic nurses. All interviews were taped, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. All transcripts were read and re‐read to elicit general themes.

Qualitative data analysis was undertaken using Van Manen framework and this enabled a number of themes to be identified that were part of overseas black and minority ethnic nurses' experience, however, two main themes would be discussed in this study. Firstly, unequal opportunities in career advancement and secondly, unequal opportunities for skill development and training. Both themes affected overseas nurses chances of promotion in the NHS.

The study has identified a notably gap in the implementation of equal opportunity policies and suggests that a more transparent implementation of such policies is needed in the NHS in the UK where this study was conducted. Additionally, more research is needed to determine whether overseas nurses in other areas experience similar problems.

The findings of this study could encourage managers to re‐examine their equal opportunity policies in the light of these findings. Although this study has explored overseas nurses experiences, the findings cannot be generalised to the wider population.

The differences experienced by overseas nurses in relation to career opportunities and skill development and training.