What’s it like for overseas trained workers in the Australian health system? What kind of experience do they have, and do they actually want to stay?
Twenty per cent of the Australian registered health workforce has been trained overseas, a figure that is likely higher in regional centres like Tasmania.
It means their experiences in our hospitals and other care settings have a major influence on our health system.
It’s also the focus of School of Social Sciences researcher Penelope Smith, who is completing a PhD on the experiences of transnational health workers of colour in the Australian health system.
As part of her project, Penelope has been in Canberra for six weeks as one of just three Parliamentary Library Summer Research Scholarship holders. There she has access to the Federal Parliament’s library and specialist staff. It’s made a major difference as she looks into Australian legislation and policy that impacts on our health workers.
“The Library staff have been incredibly welcoming to the three of us summer scholars,” she said. “People make space for us, answer all our questions and are so willing to teach us about everything about Parliament and the library more specifically.”
With five degrees under her belt already, Penelope is no stranger to university study. But even with a background in public and mental health, and experience working for and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, it took time to home in on a PhD topic.
Now, drawing on her own Filipino background, she is examining the working lives of others in the system, beginning with the complex processes they need to navigate in order to work in Australia.
“It was part of the reason I wanted to apply for the Parliamentary Library Summer Research Scholarship,” she said. “I couldn’t understand how I could rapidly learn about these interacting systems without being around individuals and a team with deep knowledge of this.”
Applicants pitched a mini research project for the scholarship, with those successful then receiving one-on-one help with honing their question and drafting a search approach.
But the experience went far beyond the research work, Penelope said.
“While there are resources within the library that are either unique or inaccessible when you are not here, the most important thing about the experience is the people here,” she said.
“It is the library staff and my fellow summer scholars which have elevated the experience. I am astounded at how generative, inspiring, and encouraging my time has been so far.”
If you’re passionate about creating a better world through research, contact the School of Social Sciences.
Image: Penelope Smith with fellow scholarship recipients Kelly Heylen (Macquarie University) and Julius Monk (University of Melbourne) in the Sky News studio at Parliament House.