Forms of Capital as Facilitators of Internationally Educated Nurses’ Integration into the Registered Nursing Workforce in Canada

Abstract

We used interview data to explore internationally educated nurses’ perceptions of the factors that facilitated their integration into the registered nursing workforce in Canada. The participants perceived that a variety of interrelated factors facilitated their integration. The identified factors seem to reflect forms of capital. Economic capital (availability of financial resources) and cultural capital (language proficiency and competency in professional vocabulary) enabled the participants to use other forms of capital to become registered and employed in Canada. Providing financial resources and interventions to develop their language skills may assist internationally educated nurses with more rapidly integrating into the country’s nursing workforce.