Migrant nurses in Singapore : a case study in understanding negotiated identities.

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of internationally qualified Filipino nurses coming to Singapore and explores the challenges they face and their coping strategies while integrating into the healthcare system. While healthcare employers attempt to help these nurses integrate into the working system, the process of undergoing transition phases of adapting into the Singaporean culture, achieving acceptance and respect as a migrant nurse can be an arduous task. I argue on the importance of exploring the lived experiences of these migrant nurses to fully understand the complexity of negotiated identities and the costs of working in a new environment. Despite a surge of foreign nurses in the Singapore healthcare system, there has been little research on how foreign nurses integrate into the healthcare working system after migration. It seeks to fill the gap in the current literature by analyzing the negotiated identities by the migrant nurses and their integration at the workplace and this poses a crucial step into the management of workplace and state-macro policies in Singapore.