So long home, hello Canada

Nursing BC, Apr 2001 by Griffiths, Helen

Unfortunately, after only two weeks in B.C., her husband became ill and they decided it would be better for him to return home.

Johnson decided to stay and complete her 12 month tenure in the cardiac stay unit at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. With a severe shortage of nurses in Canada, Johnson says nurses from abroad who come for a certain length of time bring experience and often suggestions on other ways of doing things. While it is not a solution to the nursing crisis, she says, these nurses are helping to "fill a void." Similarly, she notes, Canadian nurses who choose to work in other countries often return home, sometimes richer for the experience.

Homesickness too can be a struggle. Kulvir Minhas says that she missed home terribly even though all her family was here with her. Nearly 10 years later, she still yearns for India.

Basilio describes her arrival in Canada as a combination of excitement and fear. She recalls, "The anxiety of not knowing where to start and the thought that I am surrounded by strangers were at first overwhelming. I remember waking up my first night in a well-furnished room. I shut my eyes again hoping that when I opened them I'm back in my own simple room in the Philippines."

But despite their struggles, these nurses have stayed. And as colleagues and potential health care consumers, we are better for it. Just ask those who work with them most closely. Bedell sees flexibility and commitment. She says, "It's a huge challenge to adapt to working in a new health care system and I think that speaks to their flexibility... And the hoops they have to go through just to get here! That speaks to their perseverance. Often their commitment to the basic principles of nursing is very strong."

Says Hills, "Their work ethic is unbelievable. And they're not afraid of direct physical care. Right at the start... foreign students are in there helping with things like feeding. Then once they've finished with their own patient, these students will be making beds and combing another patient's hair."

"Their dedication is awesome," adds Bousquet. Her colleague in Nanaimo, Valerie Olynyk, sums it up eloquently: "Foreign-educated nurses bring ways of knowing, embedded in the language and culture of their experience. In the end, it is our human uniqueness that is of value, and the number of lives that we touch."

HELEN GRIFFITHS IS A REGISTERED NURSE AND WRITER IN VANCOUVER.