Canada has experienced a significant change in its ethnic and cultural composition in recent decades. The sustained immigration from non-European countries has given rise to new generations of immigrants whose mother tongue is neither English nor French and whose religion is not Christian. This new trend is clearly reflected in hospital environment where workforce from visible minority nurses (VMN) continues to increase. However, it was noted we that in the nursing sector, the number of these VMN is particularly low in management positions.
This qualitative study adopting the method of critical ethnography and postcolonial approach focuses on the difficult career paths of VMN in a Canadian hospital. We explored the VMN experience in regard of vertical mobility, and sought to understand the perception of this population on the factors impeding or facilitating such mobility.
Twelve nurses and managers participated in a series of semi-structured interviews to gather relevant information about the representativeness of the VMN in advanced positions in the hierarchy of their institution. In addition to these interviews, two interviews were held with human resources individuals. Canales’ (2000) theoretical account regarding “othering” was used for this research.
The results of this study show that the VMN faced obstacles, often invisible, that contribute to keeping them at a lower level of the institutional hierarchy, including the hiring and promotion process that they describe as unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory. They suffer from a lack of support from their institution for training and mentoring as well as poor social relationships in the workplace. The VMN feel instrumentalized and perceive that systemic discrimination and segregation have a great effect on their career development, for their institutions are not proactive to reduce inequalities.
This project has the potential to generate new knowledge that will be used to produce practical and creative tools for hospital and institutions to implement changes that will promote the representation of diversity in managerial positions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/35047 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Bouabdillah, Naima |
| Contributors | Tourigny, Jocelyne, Holmes, Dave |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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