Indonesian immigrant nurses' stress, distress, and coping: A qualitative study

The experience of nurses migrating abroad to work clinically can have a significant impact on their mental health. Stress factors can include adjusting to a new work system, language challenges, and adaptation.

The aim was to analyse the stress, distress, and coping conditions of Indonesian nurses returning home after working abroad.

This was a qualitative descriptive and interpretative phenomenological approach with 30 nurses who returned home after working abroad, recruited using snowball sampling. Data collection was carried out in Indonesia through semi-structured interviews with the participants. Interviews were conducted in Indonesian and lasted approximately 60 minutes. The data were analysed using reflective thematic analysis.

There were three themes. The first was feeling stressed with the work, consisting of sub-themes feeling a high mental burden, experiences that made one cry, difficulty in adapting, overwork in the field, and feeling alone in a foreign country. The second theme was mental health and its impact on life, with the sub-themes of feeling afraid, feeling traumatised, thinking about losing weight, inability to express feelings, and often being a victim of bullying. The third theme was coping mechanisms while working abroad, consisting of the sub-themes of coping was not good enough, feeling relieved to return to Indonesia, surrendering to the situation, being able to manage oneself and one's mentality, always having to be ready to learn, relieving stress with entertainment, finding a place to express feelings, and strengthening commitment and planning.

Indonesian nurses working abroad faced a number of complex challenges as migrant nurses.