'All these allied health professionals and you're not really sure when you use them': insights from Australian international medical graduates on working with allied health

Abstract

Objective. This paper presents the findings of research which explored how International Medical Graduates (IMGs) understand and integrate with the allied health system in relation to multidisciplinary care. Methods. An open-ended, exploratory qualitative design comprised of thirty (n = 30) open-ended, in-depth interviews with IMGs employed in a public hospital in Queensland, Australia. Results. Many IMGs have no experience with allied health support in their country of origin. Multidisciplinary collaboration is a new concept for IMGs integrating into the Australia healthcare system. Learning about the allied health system, including how to work effectively within the context of the multidisciplinary team, is an important topic that needs to be addressed as a matter of priority. Conclusions. There is a strong need to focus on improving strategies for integrating IMGs into the allied health system. In particular, IMGs require information to help them understand the roles and referral processes associated with interfacing with the allied health system. What is known about the topic? To date, there is no research available on the important topic of how IMGs understand and integrate with the allied health system in relation to multidisciplinary care in the Australian healthcare system. What does this paper add? The present findings make an important contribution to the literature by highlighting the need to focus on integrating IMGs into the allied health system. The findings presented in this paper indicate that, for the range of reasons summarised the IMGs’ understanding of the allied health system is limited. What are the implications for practitioners? The IMGs in this study called for assistance in understanding the allied health system, a process they considered difficult to do on their own. The strong recommendation is that it is most appropriate for allied health professionals in the hospital to take such leadership, and such efforts will be met by a readiness to learn on the part of the IMGs.

International medical graduates' experiences before and after migration: A meta‐ethnography of qualitative studies

“…The four main barriers that IMGs faced appeared to be the differences in language, 18,36,37,40,42,46,70–72 culture, 15,16,20,36,39,46,55,56,58,59,65,69,72–83 medical education, 14,16,54,75–77,80 and belonging 15,19,20,35,46,54,55,57,59,68,72,81 . It was the extent to which the IMGs' language, culture and medical education differed from the host country's, how weak their sense of belonging and the extent of bias they faced that determined the degree of difficulty they endured.…”

“…The cultural differences that IMGs faced included culture in the workplace and in society at large 15,16,20,36,39,46,54–56,58,59,65,69,72–83 . An IMG who was a native of the host country but qualified in another country did not suffer culture shock in society compared with an IMG who immigrated from another country 14,47,71,73 . However, the former was likely to suffer a workplace culture shock, especially if the country of PMQ had a very different healthcare system and workplace culture 68 …”

“…The cultural differences that IMGs faced included culture in the workplace and in society at large 15,16,20,36,39,46,54–56,58,59,65,69,72–83 . An IMG who was a native of the host country but qualified in another country did not suffer culture shock in society compared with an IMG who immigrated from another country 14,47,71,73 .…”

“…15,16,20,36,39,46,[54][55][56]58,59,65,69,[72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] An IMG who was a native of the host country but qualified in another country did not suffer culture shock in society compared with an IMG who immigrated from another country. 14,47,71,73 However, the former was likely to suffer a workplace culture shock, especially if the country of PMQ had a very different healthcare system and workplace culture. 68 The same principle applied to differences in medical education between country of PMQ and host countries.…”

Liaison Officer for International Medical Graduates: Research Findings from Australia

“…Of the 201 free nodes created from the transcriptions, the nodes directly related to the decision to leave their country of origin, the psycho-social aspects of stress experienced on arrival, and the recommendation for the appointment of a liaison officer for IMGs are presented in this article. Further results from the same study on different topics such as the IMGs' perspective on allied health and sitting for the Australian Medical Council examination have been published with the same methodology elsewhere (McGrath, Henderson, Holewa, Henderson, & Tamargo, 2012McGrath, Henderson, Tamargo, & Holewa, 2011Henderson, Tamargo, & Holewa, 2011…”