Experiences of registered nurses from a refugee background: A scoping review

This scoping review presents an exploration of international literature on the factors that impact refugees' personal and professional experiences during their journey to being registered nurses in a new host country.

Governments of host countries receiving refugees seek to develop strategies that facilitate the successful resettlement, employment and enculturation of refugees that arrive as skilled professionals. There is a scarcity of studies focussing on issues faced by refugees that are RNs or those pursuing nursing registration and employment in a new host country. This study is relevant for resettlement services, nursing registration authorities and education providers and informs the international nursing workforce.

Scoping review.

Databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL; Google Scholar; PubMed; Scopus and Web of Science were searched for qualitative studies published up to and including 2017. Articles that did not specify explicitly the participants as registered nurses and/or refugees were excluded. All eligible articles were analysed for collective findings, and impact factors were extracted, synthesised and illustrated diagrammatically.

This review explored six eligible articles and six impact factors were identified. The challenging impacts were as follows: loss of control; shock in a new environment and bleak employment prospects. Equally three impact factors: reconciling new reality; establishing a new identity and hope for the future, facilitate positive experiences for nurses in their successful transition into society and the nursing workplace.

This scoping review reports the small number of international studies on the experiences of refugees seeking to become registered and employed as registered nurses. The six impact factors identified influence the lives of the nurse participants socio-economically in and out of the workplace.

Policymakers, managers and educators providing resettlement, registration and employment services could develop strategies that enhance integration and transition experiences of refugees aspiring to be registered nurses.