RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Student nurses from the United States of America (USA) spent 5 weeks working with Guatemalan nurses in an acute care setting in Guatemala. This experience led to a heightened awareness of the global scope of nurses' discontent and a desire to better understand the driving factors and drawbacks to practising nursing in both the USA and Guatemala. AIM: The purpose of this research was to identify those factors that discourage nurses and those that motivate nurses to continue in their practice despite the drawbacks. METHOD: Qualitative interviews using field notes were conducted with five Guatemalan and five USA nurses. Themes were derived through qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Nurses in both the USA and Guatemala had similar reasons for choosing and staying in nursing. The different health care systems presented different problems resulting in different discontents. CONCLUSION: The two groups of nurses had much in common, especially in their reasons for staying in nursing. The Guatemalan nurses were most discontent with the lack of resources to treat patients, while the USA nurses focused on work environment drawbacks. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Strategies to support nurses and nursing in developing countries need to be developed and implemented. As nurses reach out to their colleagues in other nations, understanding our commonalities and differences will help us to support each other in improving health throughout the world.