Black and Minority Ethnic and Internationally Recruited Nurses: Results from RCN Employment/Working Well Surveys 2005 and 2002

In order to help improve Royal College of Nursing understanding of the employment experiences of internationally recruited nurses and UK trained black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses, the RCN commissioned a secondary analysis to draw together commentary and analysis from previous surveys. Two main comparisons were drawn out of the data: the differences between white and BME respondents and differences between nurses who qualified in the UK and those who qualified overseas but started working in the UK since 1999. The purpose of this paper is to collate and summarise existing data gleaned from previous RCN surveys and present additional secondary analysis of data covering IRNs and BME nurses where possible. A further purpose of this research is to point to areas where there are gaps in knowledge of the working lives of IRN and BME nurses. [introduction]