| Summary: | The research question in this study is ‘What is the lived experience of foreign nurses of working at a hospital in Iceland?’ It is conducted in the international context of a rise in migration of nurses and the local context of changes from a homogeneous towards a multicultural society. The aim of the study is to generate an understanding of the foreign nurses’ experience. The purpose is to facilitate a constructive international climate and recruitment strategies in Icelandic hospitals and to increase knowledge of what it is like to be a foreign resident in Iceland. The methodology that guided the study is phenomenology, a variation termed “the Vancouver school of doing phenomenology.” Sampling was purposeful. The sample consisted of eleven RN nurses from seven countries and three continents working at three hospitals. Most of them had no, or limited, knowledge of Icelandic at the onset of employment. The data were collected in dialogues and the analysis was thematic. The overall findings are presented as ‘Growing through experiencing and overcoming strangeness and communication barriers’, and five main themes describe the essence of the experience. The first theme is ‘Meeting and tackling the initial, multiple and unexpected simultaneous challenges.’ It was distressing for most of them to start to work in Iceland, also for the nurses from near-culture countries. They received support from various people and a quitters-never-win attitude assisted them also to persist. The second theme is ‘Becoming an outsider and the need to be let in, to belong.’ Having been insiders in their own countries, they experienced the troublesome feeling of becoming an outsider. They needed to belong, particularly at work. Belonging meant to be valued, accepted and trusted and to make Icelandic friends. The third theme is ‘Struggling with the language barrier.’ Lack of effective means to express themselves was distressing and affected the other domains of their adjustment. Learning Icelandic was pressuring even though they received ...
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