Overseas nurses' experiences of equal opportunities in the NHS in England

Purpose – To explore the experiences of overseas black and minority ethnic nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) in the south of England. Methods – Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 12 overseas black and minority ethnic nurses. All interviews were taped, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. All transcripts were read and re‐read to elicit general themes. Findings – Qualitative data analysis was undertaken using Van Manen framework and this enabled a number of themes to be identified that were part of overseas black and minority ethnic nurses' experience, however, two main themes would be discussed in this study. Firstly, unequal opportunities in career advancement and secondly, unequal opportunities for skill development and training. Both themes affected overseas nurses chances of promotion in the NHS. Research limitation/implications – The study has identified a notably gap in the implementation of equal opportunity policies and suggests that a more transparent implementation of such policies is needed in the NHS in the UK where this study was conducted. Additionally, more research is needed to determine whether overseas nurses in other areas experience similar problems. Practical implications – The findings of this study could encourage managers to re‐examine their equal opportunity policies in the light of these findings. Although this study has explored overseas nurses experiences, the findings cannot be generalised to the wider population. Originality value – The differences experienced by overseas nurses in relation to career opportunities and skill development and training.