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.