Lived experiences of immigrant nurses in New South Wales, Australia: searching for meaning

Recognising the potential value of immigrant nurses in multicultural Australia, this study sought to understand immigrant nurses’ experiences in order to throw some light on their under representation in the nursing workforce. Using a Heideggerian phenomenological approach the purpose of this study was to explore, describe and analyse the lived experiences of five immigrant nurses, four from non-English-speaking backgrounds, practising in New South Wales, Australia. Through naturalistic open-ended interviews, the everyday experiences of immigrant nurses were described and hermeneutically analysed. The lived experiences, and the meaning of such experiences which emerged from analysis included: professional negation, experienced in lack of support; otherness, experienced in cultural separateness; silencing, experienced in language and communication difficulties and a number of other related experiences and feelings. The study highlights the continuing existence of a social and cultural distance between nurses of the dominant culture and nurses from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.