International recruitment of mental health nurses to the national health service: a challenge for the UK

Journal article

A worldwide shortage of nurses has resulted in many countries recruiting nurses from abroad to fill the vacancies in their workforce. This has fueled an increase in the number of internationally educated nurses (IENs), resulting in a greater need to understand how to facilitate their integration into the workforce. The aim of this study is to identify the barriers IENs face when integrating into local healthcare systems with the purpose of informing employers and policy makers on how they can support the successful integration of IENs into the workforce in Finland. The method of research was a descriptive literature review. The EBSCO portal was used to access 12 databases. Results were synthesized then discussed. Results identified barriers that fall into four broad themes: discrimination, communication, social factors, and bureaucracy. These barriers often result in the IEN being employed below their level of skill, experience, and education; a phenomenon known as de-skilling. Recommendations for supporting IENs integration include legislation to streamline legalization procedures, support for families of IENs, the charting of IENs career progression of IENs and future research to focus on the barriers faced by IEN integrating into Finland

Authors: Phiri, P; Sajid, S; Baykoca, A; Shetty, S; Mudoni, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: BioMed Central
• Journal: BMC Nursing
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 355-355
• Article number: 355
• Publication date: 2022-12-12
• DOI: 10.1186/s12912-022-01128-1
• EISSN: 1472-6955
• ISSN: 1472-6955
• Language: English
• Keywords: Service (business); Mental health; Public relations; Nursing management; Business; Pandemic; Political science; Workforce; Economic growth; Nursing; Medicine; Nursing research; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Marketing; Psychiatry