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Table 4 Quotations and themes from the interviews with IENs and IMGs

From: Internationally educated nurses’ and medical graduates’ experiences of getting a license and practicing in Sweden – a qualitative interview study

Quotations

Theme

 

Getting a license- a different story

“I moved here in 2004; in 2007 I was done with the language and supplementary training and could start working. The path was pretty long.” (IEN 10)

 

“I came for a visit. I went to the National Board of Health and Welfare and asked them what I needed, which documents, and then they helped me. Then I got my nursing license.” (IEN 7)

 
 

The work is familiar, yet a lot is new

“What’s negative about… in all ways I guess, it’s the bureaucracy and well, that fact that you need much much more time for the administrative documentation even though you’re a physician” (IMG 9).

 

“… and for instance, I make a schedule for myself, so I can follow that schedule so I make less and less mistakes. Well, because you have to remove… the Italian system and only think about the Swedish system” (IMG 5).

 

“I think I’m academic and I think I have so many different experiences under my belt. I’m competent. I feel I’m able to manage and do a good job, I think so. It’s a combination of education and the different jobs I’ve had” (IEN 7).

 

“… I’ve passed the Swedish tests so I’ve done my internship in Sweden. So I’m approved, I have my Swedish license. I shouldn’t doubt my competence; my level of competence is equivalent to Swedish physicians’ competence” (IMG 9).

 

“Yes it was pretty stressful because there were two fronts, you could say; one was the language and the other was knowledge at my job because I lacked experience. So I’d say it was pretty difficult.” (IMG 6)

 

“Sometimes the patients who arrive who come from our countries, Syria or Lebanon or others, they say there’s a big difference, and they’re right, because we… Here you have to follow, like I said, a program or a system, but in our countries you don’t have to follow this system… so sometimes I have to explain to them, the patients, that it’s the system that’s for this way, you have to follow this system” (IMG 5).

 
 

Trying to master a new language

“… studied Swedish C, then I worked as an assistant nurse here, and then, I didn’t understand a lot, but I could listen and understand more, but couldn’t express myself. It was a bit harder during that period but it was exciting. And I told the patients I worked with where I came from and I spoke pretty slowly and they helped me with the language, so I learned a lot of the language here [workplace]” (IEN 3).

 

“But making suggestions, moving ahead is difficult. And I imagine this depends on language, because I speak differently, maybe my language isn’t as refined as others’. I can’t discuss things… I don’t get involved in discussions, because I know my language isn’t good enough” (IGM 2).