THE WORK EXPERIENCES OF FOREIGN NURSES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

As the title suggests, this thesis examines the work experiences of foreign nurses working in a local hospital. Specifically, the concept of work attitudes is given prominence. Other subsidiary ideas of collective work morale and work commitment are alluded by way of explicating foreign nurses' work attitudes during the time frame when the study was undertaken. Basically I highlight a constellation of causes that effect a particular work attitude outcome. In short, work attitudes are not individual attributes but mediated by external causes and conditions. They are staged in consort with fluctuating and evolving social realities, or in accordance to how a contract nurse perceives social reality to be. Undoubtedly, foreign nurses sojourn in search of greener pastures elsewhere. However, not all have been green, for some have been brown. Otherwise, there may not be pastures to speak of in the first place. In this sense, the work experiences of contract nurses have been nothing quite so similar. Having said that, I have sieved their myriad experiences into two broad categories of work attitudes. These two typologies of work attitudes bulwark my discussion, which I give credit in due course.