Nursing-In-Australia

Immigration is a critical event in a person’s life and may include experiences such as culture shock and difficulties in transition to the new work place in Australia. Up until now, there has been little done to support CALD nurses in their transition, although Jackson (1996, p. 124) highlighted that comfort and support was found if sharing of the lived experience was possible with other CALD nurses.

Immigrant nurses with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds commonly experience a range of difficulties in their transition to their new workplaces in Australia. Studies in NSW explored this phenomenon and found that the core issues were language barriers, feeling lonely and experiencing otherness, discrimination, lack of support, and unfamiliarity with local nursing practise.

On the other hand comfort was found if sharing of their lived experiences with other non-English speaking background nurses was possible. Some of the experiences may be partly due to culture shock, other are linked to individual and environmental stressors in adapting to the new life and work environment in Australia. Adjustment was mainly mastered by overcoming the first difficult year and becoming able to rationalise the experiences as there are no specific support programs so far.

Moreover, since the nursing shortage is a current and future topic of concern, it is crucial to enable immigrant nurses to join the Australian nursing work force, as their cultural and linguistic competencies will be beneficial in caring for Australia’s multicultural population.

Bio Marianne

Marianne grew up in a small country village in the Swiss Emmenthal. In 2006 she put her dream of moving to Australia into reality and emigrated to Perth. This move to leave her comfort-zone in Switzerland, her desire for continuous self-development, as well as her excitement and determination toward reaching her goals reflects the challenges that Marianne readily embraces.

Marianne is an open hearted person who is interested in people, cultures and in making the world a better place. She lives out her dreams such as spending time at the beach, discovering Australia’s native environment but more than anything she enjoys supporting motivated individuals on their journey of healing and success.

Marianne has over 20 years experience as a nurse, working approximately 12 years in mental health/drug addiction. In 2007 Marianne graduated as a Post Graduate Mental Health Nurse at ECU, Western Australia. She loves her vocation as a nurse as it provides a great opportunity to empower people by using her coaching skills. These can contribute to better self-esteem, improved relationships with family and friends, finding visions and assisting in achieving a dream life.

At present she is benefiting greatly from the education and mentor-coaching with Beyond Success and is embracing the opportunity to find the freedom to live to her full potential and meeting like-minded people .

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by making a comment on this blog or email me: marianne@success-coaching.org

The Department of Health was today releasing their annual nurses count and feedback in order to understand the current and future nursing and midwifery workforce. In their information they referred to numbers of the 2007 WA Nursing and Midwifery Labour Force Census and state that there were 30 000 plus nurses and midwives registered with the Nurses and Midwifery Board of WA. 

They highlight that WA is experiencing a nursing shortage and that the demand is set to increase particularly due to the ageing nursing workforce.

It also demonstrated that in the permanent employed workforce nurses worked approximately 24 hours per week (100% equals 38 hours a week with 6 weeks annual leave/”paid holiday”) and that 25% of the WA nursing and midwifery workforce were trained overseas (Letter from the Department of Health, Oct. 08).

 Introduction (Research proposal Marianne Rentsch, 2007)

In 2007 a newspaper headline  “Western Australia faces skills crises for another 10 years” aptly captured the present and future concern about a nursing shortage (Banks, 2007). In this article, Banks, argued that given the current economic growth, chronic shortages of teachers and nurse are likely to continue until 2016. Further, he cites that the West Australian government predicts that at least 180 000 skilled workers will be needed within the next decade. The Mental Health Division at a recent Service Provider Forum in Perth stated that the Department of Health is attempting to recruit overseas nurses to fill the gaps and increasing demand for more nurses (Trish Sullivan, Personal Communication, September 7. 2007). The Department of Immigration and Citizenship identify on their immigration web-page, nurses and doctors as the most needed professionals and provides a faster visa processing procedure for potential migrants in these categories. A shortfall of 40 000 nurses is projected by 2010 (Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), 2002 cited by Jeon & Chenoweth, 2007, p. 21). Jeon and Chenoweth (2007, p. 17) further present unpublished data (DIMIA, 2004)  that up to 30% of the Australian nursing workforce was born overseas and about 7.4% of them were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Importantly, overseas trained nurses are considered “valuable assets” within the labour market and are regarded as highly motivated and educated (Hawthorn, 2001, cited in Omeri, 2006, p. 56). Omeri, (2006) further adds that the majority of overseas nurses pass seamlessly into employment, with the exception of non English speaking background nurses. But, culturally and linguistically diverse nurses are reported to experience significant difficulties in their transition to the new work environment (Jackson, 1996; Omeri & Atkins, 2002) or even become lost to the workforce. Hence, it is important to explore and understand the phenomena of lived experience of the so called culturally linguistically diverse (CALD) or non-English speaking background (NESB) nurses so that awareness and support can be established to enable them to contribute their unique competences within the Australian nursing work force. (The terms culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and non English speaking background (NESB) are used to describe nurses who are working in a foreign country where a language other than their mother tongue is dominant).

Immigration situation in Australia / Nurses

According to unpublished data from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2004) the number of immigrant overseas trained nurses nearly tripled between 2000 and 2004 (cited in Jeon & Chenoweth, 2007, p. 17). In 1996 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (1999, cited in Omeri & Atkins 2002, p. 496) reported that 23.6 % of all qualified nurses were born outside Australia, including 7.4% from a non-English speaking background. Statistics from 1982 to 1994 indicate that the sources of immigrant nurses were as follows: 48% from the UK/Ireland, 25% from Asia, 12% NZ/Oceania and various countries all over the world (Hawthorne, 2000, cited in Hawthorne, 2001, p. 217). The phenomenon of a growing CALD workforce within this group is seen to be a result of the global nursing shortage (Jeon & Chenoweth, 2007, p. 17). The dilemma is that the CALD nurses were found to experience difficulties in transition that seemed to be caused mainly by language and cultural barriers (DEST, 2007, Chapter 7.1.4). However, the situation might have changed over time due to increased cultural awareness and acceptance as well as rise in numbers of skilled migration (Australian Bureau of Statistic, 2006). Nowadays, nurses are required to prove a high level of English language ability in by passing the International English Language Test System (IELTS) with a score of seven or Occupational English Test (OET) grade B for the professional licence to practise with the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council (ANMC) (n.d.) and the state nursing board’s registration, before applying for a skilled visa DIAC (n.d.). In the past the English language test was judged to have prevented 67% of CALD nurses % from outside Australia and 41% of those in Australia from applying for nursing registration (Hawthorne & Toth, cited in Hawthorne, 2001, p. 222). They further report that only 29% of CALD nurses gained nursing registration immediately without attending a bridging program, and of those required to complete competency-based bridging programs 90-95% had passed in Victoria whereas only 55-71% passed in NSW. Despite having passed the hurdles of the English language test, professional recognition and visa conditions that determine successful transition to the new Australian work place, is sill experienced as a huge challenge. Therefore, some NESB nurses end up working as Nursing Assistants or are even lost to the nursing work force (DEST, Chapter 7.1.4; authors observation). DEST therefore postulates that bilingual/cultural skills should be better integrated and more valued and that support and encouragement is needed, “rather than perceiving their other language as an impediment or embarrassment to be denied or ignored”(Chapter 7.1.3).  (Background of research proposal, Marianne Rentsch, Nov. 2007)