OBJECTIVE: This study sought to identify and evaluate approaches used to attract internationally trained nurses from traditional and non-traditional countries and incentives employed to retain them in small rural hospitals in Gippsland, Victoria. DESIGN: An exploratory descriptive design. SETTING: Small rural hospitals in Gippsland, Victoria. PARTICIPANTS: Hospital staff responsible for recruitment of nurses and overseas trained nurses from traditional and non-traditional sources (e.g. England, Scotland, India, Zimbabwe, Holland, Singapore, Malaysia). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Recruitment of married overseas trained nurses is more sustainable than that of single registered nurses, however, the process of recruitment for the hospital and potential employees is costly. Rural hospitality diffuses some of these expenses by the employing hospitals providing emergency accommodation and necessary furnishings. Cultural differences and dissonance regarding practice create barriers for some of the overseas trained nurses to move towards a more sanguine position. On the positive side, single overseas registered nurses use the opportunity to work in rural Australian hospitals as an effective working holiday that promotes employment in larger, more specialized hospitals. Overall both the registered nurses and the employees believe the experience to be beneficial rather than detrimental.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	overseas registered nurses, rural health services
Research Division:	Indigenous Studies
Research Group:	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing
Research Field:	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health and wellbeing
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Public health (excl. specific population health)
Objective Field:	Behaviour and health
UTAS Author:	Barnett, AP (Associate Professor Tony Barnett)
ID Code:	72784
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	15
Deposited By:	UTAS Centre for Rural Health
Deposited On:	2011-08-31
Last Modified:	2011-10-12
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