Culturally and linguistically diverse nurses' experiences of how competence facilitates integration into the working environment: A qualitative study.

AIM: This study aims to describe culturally and linguistically diverse nurses' experiences of how they transferred their competence to meet professional competence requirements in non-English speaking environment. BACKGROUND: Competence is one factor that affects culturally and linguistically diverse nurses' integration into the working environment. In this study, knowledge, skills, values and personal traits are included in the holistic competence concept. DESIGN: Qualitative. METHODS: A total of 24 culturally and linguistically diverse nurses involved in Finnish health care participated in this qualitative study. Data were collected through snowball sampling during the summer of 2021 using semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analysed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The data analysis revealed a total of five main categories describing culturally and linguistically diverse nurses' experiences: 1) before immigration; 2) competence requirements in the country of immigration; 3) assessment of competencies; 4) support factors; and 5) hardships. CONCLUSION: Degree recognition, colleagues' tolerance towards culturally and linguistically diverse nurses at the workplace and continuous education focusing on local language could improve culturally and linguistically diverse nurses' integration into the working environment.

Collegiality among social- and health care educators in higher education or vocational institutions: A mixed-method systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Social- and health care educators collaborate on national and international levels; this collaboration is intrinsically related to collegiality, a concept which has only been scarcely studied among social- and health care educators. OBJECTIVES: To identify the best evidence on social- and health care educators' experiences of collegiality and factors influencing it in educational institutions. DESIGN: A mixed-methods systematic review. DATA SOURCES: Keywords were defined according to PICo and PEO inclusion and exclusion criteria. A search was performed across five databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Medic, Scopus, and ProQuest) for articles published in Finnish and/or English REVIEW METHODS: During the screening process, three researchers separately screened original studies by title and abstract (n = 806), and subsequently, based on the full-text (n = 40). The JBI Qualitative Assessment Research Instrument was used to evaluate qualitative studies, while the Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-sectional Studies was used to evaluate quantitative studies. RESULTS: The systematic review included a total of 15 articles. Collegiality among social- and health care educators was described through united and safe work culture, along with the dissemination of relevant expertise. The benefits of mentoring, communication on national and international levels, and collaboration are all issues that affect an educator's work. In the context of social- and health care educators, collegiality does not only include the interactions between the educators, but also involves their mentors and supervisors. Mentoring and collaboration between educational institutions were found to be associated with collegiality. CONCLUSIONS: Collegiality among educators can be maintained through networking, collaboration, mentoring, mutual communication and the consideration of professional ethical issues. It would be important for educational organisations to pay attention to collegiality and encourage educators to collaborate with their colleagues. It is important to emphasise the role of collegiality in the education of new social- and health care teacher candidates and the continuing education of current educators.

Development and testing of an instrument to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have investigated the competence of social and health care educators from different perspectives. However, there has been little research on the collegiality competence of social and health educators. AIM / OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically test a new collegiality competence instrument (CollegialityComp) designed to enable social and health care educators to self-evaluate their competence in collegiality. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design for instrument development and psychometric testing. METHODS: Data were collected in the winter of 2020-2021 from social and health care educators at ten universities of applied sciences and ten vocational institutions in Finland (N = 1179), of whom 243 decided to participate. Face and content validity was assessed by seven experts, while structural validity and internal consistency were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. RESULTS: The CollegialityComp development and testing process produced an instrument that includes 35 items representing five factors: (1) individual-centered collaboration, (2) educator action and fairness, (3) collaboration among colleagues, (4) collaboration outside the organization, and (5) communication and trust. CONCLUSION: The CollegialityComp instrument can be used to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators in the context of vocational and higher education. It may also be useful during the training of teacher candidates.