Experiences of Nigerian migrant nurses and health care assistants of people with dementia in the National Health Service

This study explores the experiences of paid Nigerian migrant health care assistants (HCA) and nurses for people living with dementia (PLWD) in the United Kingdom (UK). Demographic changes across the UK have resulted in an increasingly ageing population and a significant number of these older people are living with dementia. With changing family and work patterns, many PLWD are now residing in care homes and hospitals, and this has increased the demand for care workers, including migrant care workers. This qualitative study analysed the experiences of twenty-one Nigerian migrant care workers (HCAs and nurses) working on two different NHS wards caring for PLWD. Informed by hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology (and drawing on the work of Gadamer and van Manen), the researcher utilised in-depth interviews to gain an understanding of the care workers beliefs about dementia, the significance of training and the role of culture in everyday care work for PLWD. Migrants working in the care sector are often assumed to be poorly educated, however, this study found that my participants were highly educated and majority of them did not migrate to the UK to undertake care work. Also, all the participants found caring for PLWD rewarding as well as challenging. Although the study did not originally aim to examine racial discrimination in the workplace, most of the participants identified racism as one of the more significant challenge in care work. The study highlights the value of training in changing paid Nigerian migrant care workers’ traditional/cultural beliefs about dementia and suggests some cultural values that in fact promoted respect for older adults in care settings. The thesis concludes by highlighting the importance of understanding the role of culture and training in professional caregiving.