Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Embodiment of discrimination and overseas nurses’ career progression

Embodiment of discrimination and overseas nurses’ career progression Aim and objectives. To examine empirically and in‐depth how discriminatory attitudes and practices are experienced by overseas nurses and how the discrimination may affect their well‐being and career progression and, furthermore, to apply the theoretical perspective of embodiment in understanding these processes. Background. The UK healthcare sector has, in recent years, relied on overseas‐trained professionals to fill up vacancies in nursing and other professions. Research shows that overseas nurses claim that their UK colleagues, managers and patients express discriminatory, racist and xenophobic attitudes. Design and method. The paper provides an existential phenomenological analysis of in‐depth interviews with two overseas nurses. The data are drawn from a study of overseas‐trained healthcare workers’ experiences working and living in the UK. The two cases have been purposively selected to provide an illumination and discussion of personal experiences with discrimination, how individuals may respond to these and how their professional career is affected. Findings. Discrimination towards migrant workers may, at times, be experienced as ‘blatant racism’ or, in more subtle forms, as ‘aversive racism’. It is demonstrated how such discrimination may impact on the afflicted person's sense of self, suggesting a theoretical model of the embodiment of discrimination. Discrimination not only works at an interpersonal and institutional level, but is a form of ‘symbolic violence’ that may be internalized to affect the person's ‘habitus’; it can be resisted through meaning‐making activity that explains and hence objectifies and embodies the experience in a way that allows individuals to positively influence their situation through agency. Conclusion. This article details how social and institutionalized discrimination in the UK healthcare sector may be internalized by overseas workers and affects their professional careers. Relevance to clinical practice. The study allows a theoretical reflection on the damage inflicted by discrimination, and it may contribute to the eradication of discriminatory practices and the development of necessary support and monitoring mechanisms. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Clinical Nursing Wiley

Embodiment of discrimination and overseas nurses’ career progression

Larsen, John Aggergaard
Journal of Clinical Nursing , Volume 16 (12) – Dec 1, 2007
Download PDF
9 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/embodiment-of-discrimination-and-overseas-nurses-career-progression-lgdRf9NHci

References (15)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0962-1067
eISSN
1365-2702
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.02017.x
pmid
18036108
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Aim and objectives. To examine empirically and in‐depth how discriminatory attitudes and practices are experienced by overseas nurses and how the discrimination may affect their well‐being and career progression and, furthermore, to apply the theoretical perspective of embodiment in understanding these processes. Background. The UK healthcare sector has, in recent years, relied on overseas‐trained professionals to fill up vacancies in nursing and other professions. Research shows that overseas nurses claim that their UK colleagues, managers and patients express discriminatory, racist and xenophobic attitudes. Design and method. The paper provides an existential phenomenological analysis of in‐depth interviews with two overseas nurses. The data are drawn from a study of overseas‐trained healthcare workers’ experiences working and living in the UK. The two cases have been purposively selected to provide an illumination and discussion of personal experiences with discrimination, how individuals may respond to these and how their professional career is affected. Findings. Discrimination towards migrant workers may, at times, be experienced as ‘blatant racism’ or, in more subtle forms, as ‘aversive racism’. It is demonstrated how such discrimination may impact on the afflicted person's sense of self, suggesting a theoretical model of the embodiment of discrimination. Discrimination not only works at an interpersonal and institutional level, but is a form of ‘symbolic violence’ that may be internalized to affect the person's ‘habitus’; it can be resisted through meaning‐making activity that explains and hence objectifies and embodies the experience in a way that allows individuals to positively influence their situation through agency. Conclusion. This article details how social and institutionalized discrimination in the UK healthcare sector may be internalized by overseas workers and affects their professional careers. Relevance to clinical practice. The study allows a theoretical reflection on the damage inflicted by discrimination, and it may contribute to the eradication of discriminatory practices and the development of necessary support and monitoring mechanisms.

Journal

Journal of Clinical Nursing – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2007

There are no references for this article.