A Precarious Journey: Nurses From the Philippines Seeking RN Licensure and Employment in Canada

Abstract

Increasingly, internationally educated nurses (IENs) from developing countries are seeking RN licensure and employment in Canada. Despite efforts to support their integration into the nursing workforce, a significant number never achieve integration. To explore this phenomenon, the authors use ethnographic methods informed by postcolonial feminism and relational ethical theory to examine the experiences of nurses educated in the Philippines as they seek Canadian RN licensure and employment. The study's focus on a journey that begins in the Philippines and continues in Canada adds an important temporal dimension located in tensions within and between the contexts of regulatory and immigration policies. The findings illuminate the dual challenge of being a new arrival in the country and being an IEN pursuing the Canadian RN credential. Additionally, the findings deepen our understanding of the dominant political, ideological, and social values, both in the Philippines and in Canada, that shape this experience.