Nursing of Refugee and Asylum Seeker Families: An Integrative Review

Abstract

During recent years there has been a dramatic increase worldwide in the number of individuals seeking asylum. As a result of this mass migration, nurses will need more guidance on how to work with refugees and asylum seeker families in a variety of health care settings. The purpose of this thesis was to describe firstly the most common mental and physical health problems of refugees and asylum seekers, and secondly culturally competent nursing practices to work with this vulnerable group.

This thesis carried out an integrative literature review on nine articles selected from the CINAHL and PubMed databases. Data analysis was conducted using a general inductive approach.

Data was initially divided into two main themes on the basis of the two research questions and then categorized into subthemes. The subcategories regarding health problems were: mental illness, somatic illness, gynecological needs, abuse and negative impacts on health. The subcategories regarding nursing practice were: commonly used and suggested nursing approaches; suggestions to improve communication and interpretation; recommended training for nurses; techniques to improve cultural competence in nurses; and working in supportive and multi-professional teams.

The results of this thesis can be used to improve nurses’ knowledge of the challenges faced by refugee and asylum seeker families, as well as provide guidance on how to provide culturally competent nursing care to this group.