nursing skills: They come to Canada with extensive nursing skills but often struggle with language and cultural norms, says Ruth Lee, chief of nursing practice at Hamilton Health Sciences. "When there are lots of barriers, their talents and skills are being wasted," said Lee, according to Hamilton Spectator. If a nurse from abroad takes longer than three years to begin practising in Canada, he or she must do extensive retraining, she said. "A lot of very good nurses end up doing housekeeping or washing dishes or becoming a nanny." The research team has received $1.3 million over three years from the Ministry of Citizen, Immigration and International Trade for the project. The university Nursing Health Services Research Unit has partnered with health-care employers in the province to create symposiums, webinars and an employment manual for newly hired foreign-trained nurses. Andrea Baumann, scientific director of the NHSRU at McMaster, said there is a qualified pool of internationally-educated nurses available for hire in Ontario. "It important to have a health workforce that can provide care to Ontario diverse communities. nurses) reflect the diversity of the patient population and they offer valuable experience and additional language skills." In some cases, nurses trained abroad are tripped up by cultural norms in Canada, says Lee. That may be shocking to some nurses from other countries." Others come from cultures where it seen as disrespectful to make eye contact. "In many cultures, answering back is not respectful, but here we expect an answer," said Lee. "A non-response is often misinterpreted as incompetent." Hamilton Health Sciences has offered orientation and training for international nurses since 2009. Some come from patriarchal societies, where women don't assert themselves. "In Canada, nurses will challenge anything they don't agree with when it comes to patient care.
(www.immigrantscanada.com). As
reported in the news.
Tagged under nursing skills, Ministry Citizen topics.
12.5.15