Employment, psychosocial work environment and well-being among migrant and native physicians in Finnish health care

Aalto, Anna-Mari; Heponiemi, Tarja; Keskimäki, Ilmo; Kuusio, Hannamaria; Hietapakka, Laura; Lämsä, Riikka; Sinervo, Timo; Elovainio, Marko

doi:10.1093/eurpub/cku021

Cited by 47 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, in Finland, migrant doctors are more often employed in the primary care sector because difficult recruitment from the native workforce. Migrant physicians develop burnout due to the lack of professional support [142]. Even migrant workers with less qualifications and a lower socio-economic status, such as Chinese rural-urban workers, develop burnout due to chronic exposure to work-related stress [143].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant Workers and Psychological Health: A Systematic Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Migrant workers show an increase in the incidence of serious, psychotic, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorders due to a series of socio-environmental variables, such as loss of social status, discrimination, and separations from the family. The purpose is to elaborate a systematic review and highlight the prevailing psychological pathologies of these workers and categories most at risk. Our research included articles published from 2009 to 2019 on the major databases (Pub Med, Cochrane Library, and Scopus) using a combination of some keywords. The online search indicated 1.228 references. Using inclusion and exclusion criteria, we analyzed 127 articles, in particular 12 reviews and 115 original articles. Principal emerging disorders from the research are depressive syndrome (poor concentration at work, feeling down, or anger and somatization), anxiety, alcohol or substance abuse, and poor sleep quality. This causes low life conditions, which is also due to marginalization from the social context and strenuous work; in fact, migrant workers may suffer verbal or physical abuse, and they are often employed in dangerous, unhealthy jobs. It is therefore essential to increase the role of occupational medicine and promote wellbeing for this vulnerable job category.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant Workers and Psychological Health: A Systematic Review

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Beyond the excessive job stress, burnout and job dissatisfaction that migrant and native employees share, foreign doctors experience discrimination, unknown norms and behavioural patterns and limited setting-specific knowledge at their workplace [29, 30]. A Finnish study revealed that migrant doctors perceive more work-related distress and are at twice the risk of burnout compared to their native colleagues [31]. Foreign-born family therapists are confronted with stereotypical behaviour and they feel they are perceived as less sympathetic by their clients [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health situation of migrant and minority nurses: A systematic review

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionGlobally, life expectancy together with multimorbidity and chronic diseases are increasing. This leads to a growing demand for care and hence for healthcare personnel and nurses. To meet this demand, healthcare workers from abroad are increasingly hired. The nurses’ workplace in general is characterized by physically and psychologically demanding tasks, while that of migrant and minority nurses is additionally characterized by discriminatory practices. The present knowledge about the health of migrant and minority nurses and the terminology in this context are diverse. Thus, the purpose of this review is to systematically identify and synthesize international publications that explicitly focus on migrant nurses’ health.Materials and methodsA systematic review of relevant studies was undertaken using the databases Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science. The screening process was conducted in several phases. This review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines while the methodological quality assessment of the included papers was performed with the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT).ResultsOut of 11,599 citations initially obtained, 14 empirical studies were included in the final synthesis. The methodological quality of the empirical studies and reviews was diverse. The majority of the studies were conducted in the US and the nurses under study migrated from countries like the Philippines, India, Europe, and Africa. Among migrant nurses of different origins, there are differences in their physiological responses to stress. Migrant nurses and native nurses differ in reporting work-related injuries.DiscussionMigrant and minority nurses are at high risk of work-related injuries and discrimination than native or majority nurses. However, mixed results were obtained, namely that the reported health of migrant nurses either improves over time or it decreases. This review revealed that discrimination is the leading cause of impaired health amongst migrant and minority nurses.

show abstract

“…Job control was measured using one of the two subscales from Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek, ) to make the survey less of a burden on participant time. Skill Discretion was selected as we expected this subscale may be more important for cross‐cultural competence than decision authority because migrant health care professionals have previously been reported to work in lower‐level positions that do not make use of their skills and qualifications (Aalto, Heponiemi, Keskimaki, et al, ; Mick, Lee, & Wodchis, ). The 3‐item Skill Discretion subscale (α = .80) describes the degree to which the job involves a variety of tasks, occasions to learn new things, and opportunities to develop special abilities and is measured by items such as I am required to learn new things in my job .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because foreign‐born nurses, compared with their native colleagues, face more challenges in their work, which may exacerbate the effect of adverse psychosocial work characteristics. For example, a previous study showed that foreign‐born health care professionals more frequently experience a lack of social support at work and work‐related distress than native nurses (Aalto, Heponiemi, Keskimaki, et al, ). Moreover, it has been shown that the risk of violence from patients and colleagues is higher among migrant health care employees (Crutcher, Szafran, Wolochuk, Chatur, & Hansen, ; Eneroth, Gustafsson Senden, Schenck Gustafsson, Wall, & Fridner, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial work environment and cross‐cultural competence among native and foreign‐born registered nurses

Wesołowska

Elovainio

Gluschkoff

et al. 2019

Research in Nursing & Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cross‐cultural competence is an essential component of the nursing profession, but little is known about the specific psychosocial work characteristics that potentially promote or hinder such competence. In the present study, psychosocial work characteristics were based on Karasek's Job Demand—Control Model. The researchers examined whether Karasek's psychosocial work characteristics, such as high‐strain jobs, high‐strain isolated jobs, active jobs, and active collective jobs, are associated with cross‐cultural competence (empathy, skills, positive attitudes, and motivation), and whether there are differences between native and foreign‐born registered nurses (RN) in these potential associations. A random sample of 744 native RNs (91.0% women) and a total sample (n = 212) of foreign‐born RNs (94.3% women) working in Finland were used. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed with a series of multiple linear regression analyses. High‐strain and high‐strain isolated jobs were negatively associated with all four dimensions of cross‐cultural competence. Active collective jobs, but not active jobs, were positively associated with cross‐cultural skills. There were no differences between native and migrant nurses in these associations. The psychosocial work environment is associated with cross‐cultural competence in both native and migrant nurses. Improvements in psychosocial working conditions, especially minimizing negative factors in the work environment, such as high‐strain and high‐strain isolated jobs, may need to be considered as a part of the efforts aimed to enhance cross‐cultural competence among nursing personnel.

show abstract

Employment, psychosocial work environment and well-being among migrant and native physicians in Finnish health care

Cited by 47 publications

References 20 publications

Migrant Workers and Psychological Health: A Systematic Review

Migrant Workers and Psychological Health: A Systematic Review

Health situation of migrant and minority nurses: A systematic review

Psychosocial work environment and cross‐cultural competence among native and foreign‐born registered nurses

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About