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Seo and Kim: Clinical Work Experience of Korean Immigrant Nurses in U.S. Hospitals
Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing 2016; 46(2): 238-248.

Published online: 29 April 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2016.46.2.238

Clinical Work Experience of Korean Immigrant Nurses in U.S. Hospitals

Kumsook Seo1, Miyoung Kim2

1Department of Nursing, Kaya University, Gimhae, Korea.

2College of Nursing, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Kim, Miyoung. College of Nursing, Ewha Womans University, 52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03760, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3277-6694, Fax: +82-2-3277-2850, mykim0808@ewha.ac.kr

Received 21 September 2015       Revised 7 October 2015       Accepted 27 November 2015

© 2016 Korean Society of Nursing Science

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/) If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the meaning of the experience of Korean immigrant nurses working in US hospitals.

Methods

Purposive sampling yielded 15 Korean immigrant nurses who had more than one year of clinical experience in US hospitals. Data were collected from March to August 2012 through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis was conducted using van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach.

Results

The findings were classified into eight themes: 'struggling from staff at workplace being territorial to outsiders', 'feeling oppressed due to language barrier', 'accepting rational and horizontal relationships at work', 'staying alert in the environment where lawsuits are rife', 'feeling a sense of stability from the social system that values human dignity', 'maintaining self-confidence from prominent nursing practices and senior Korean nurses' professional reputation', 'performing essential comprehensive nursing care', 'promoting self-development to be equipped with professionalism.'

Conclusion

The findings indicate that the Korean immigrant nurses were able to excel in their workplace when their clinical experience at US hospitals was combined with the lived space in US politics and environment, lived time of patience, lived body to be alert, and lived others with multi cultural characteristics.

Keywords: Immigrants, Language barriers, Nurses, Qualitative research

Figures and Tables

Table 1

The Essential Themes Identified from the Clinical Experience of Korean Immigrant Nurses in US Hospitals

jkan-46-238-i001

Notes

This manuscript is condensed form of the first author's doctoral dissertation from Ewha Womans University.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declared no conflict of interest.

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