Ways in which healthcare organisations can support overseas-qualified doctors in the UK

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with sixtysix doctors who had qualified outside the UK and who were entering the first year of the UK Foundation Programme (FY1, equivalent to the intern year). Doctors were interviewed three times at different points in that year. In addition twelve telephone interviews were conducted with educational supervisors. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the findings. Results: Issues and concerns were found to relate to: practical and logistical difficulties; gaps in declarative knowledge relevant to the UK, for example, use of equipment and drug names; structural differences, for example, organisational elements of working in the NHS, and differences in the relational aspects of professional work and clinical care, stemming from training in different models of healthcare.Conclusions: Agencies at different levels -government, regulator and employer -have a role to play in supporting overseas-doctors in their transition, and it is suggested that a co-ordinated approach would have benefits for doctors and patients.

Educational challenges faced by international medical graduates in the UK

“…While shadowing and induction offer assistance at the beginning of the transition process, enhancing their mentorship through more frequent meetings with their supervisors and raising NHS staff awareness of IMG needs are also required. This model of more focused supervision of IMGs in their first year has also been supported by other studies 5–7…”

“…Shadowing as a method of induction of new doctors is not a new strategy and has been used previously in the NHS, particularly for newly qualified doctors joining the UK foundation program with successful outcomes 9. Similar studies suggested that longer periods of shadowing are more beneficial than the short 1-week shadowing 7,9…”

Supporting international medical graduates’ transition to their host-country: realist synthesis

“…They propose three elements of transition: cultural adjustment (process of acculturation and overcoming culture shock, also associated with non‐work factors), work adjustment (performance and feeling comfortable with the job) and interaction adjustment (being comfortable with interactions with host‐country nationals). These three areas are also evident in research into transition between health care contexts . Like the transfer of learning model, it too looks at individual and organisational factors that influence job performance.…”

The experiences of foreign doctors in Saudi Arabia: A qualitative study of the challenges and retention motives

“…For example, several participants have reported receiving inadequate or misleading information during their employment process. Providing devious information to newly arrived foreigners is unethical behavior ( Klingler and Marckmann, 2016 ; Rothwell et al., 2013 ). To overcome such challenges and to influence a transparent, and ethical employment process, United States has developed the "Alliance Code for Ethical Recruitment for Foreign-Educated Health Professionals".…”