Aim: The aim of our study is to describe and understand the experiences of nurses providing emergency care to undocumented migrants who arrive in Spain in small boats.
Background: Spain receives thousands of undocumented migrants every year who arrive by sea. Provision of appropriate emergency care to undocumented migrants is a public health problem.
Introduction: Nurses, along with other health care providers, such as doctors or cultural mediators, make up the Spanish Red Cross Emergency Response Team. Nurses, in particular, are associated with all phases of emergency care to undocumented migrants who arrive in small boats, offering first aid as well as clinical and humanitarian care.
Methods: Qualitative descriptive study. Seventeen nurses from the Spanish Red Cross Emergency Response Team participated in face-to-face interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data.
Findings: Three main themes emerged: (i) guaranteeing comprehensive emergency care, (ii) the nurse, the key member of the multidisciplinary care team for undocumented migrants and (iii) 'making a difference', volunteering as a nurse's role.
Conclusions: Nurses try to guarantee comprehensive care provision for undocumented migrants, even though they face stigma, ethical concerns or an impossibility to prescribe pharmacological treatments. Personalised care, more time and protocols, better training and the incorporation of debriefing are elements that are required to improve the emergency care given to undocumented migrants.
Implications For Nursing And Health Policy: Institutions must develop policies to support provsion of emergency care to undocumented migrants. A public health issue cannot depend upon volunteer healthcare providers. Governments must guarantee funding, training and established care teams. Understanding nurses' experiences could increase awareness of the problem, reduce stigma and improve the comprehensive emergency care provided to undocumented migrants.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/inr.12723 | DOI Listing |
Int J Public Health
January 2025
Institut de Recherche et de Documentation en Économie de la Santé, Paris, France.
Objectives: This study aimed to explore the associations between mental health status and experienced pain among undocumented migrants (UMs) in France.
Methods: We used data from the multicentric cross-sectional "Premier Pas" study conducted in the Parisian and Bordeaux regions from February to April 2019. Participants over 18 years of age were recruited from sixty-three sites.
World Psychiatry
February 2025
WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Service Evaluation, Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Migrant populations - including labour migrants, undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, internationally displaced persons, and other populations on the move - are exposed to a variety of stressors that affect their mental health. We designed and tested the effectiveness of a stepped-care programme consisting of two scalable psychological interventions developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and locally adapted for migrant populations. A parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted in Italy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Public Health
December 2025
Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam UMC location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Electronic Personal Health Records (EPHRs) are potentially effective tools for improving the continuity and quality of care for migrants and refugees, and specifically for undocumented migrants (UDMs). However, little is known about the intention and preconditions of healthcare providers (HCPs) to use an EPHR for UDM in the Netherlands. Between April 2023 and June 2023, thirteen interviews, using a semi-structured topic guide, were conducted with Dutch HCPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Paediatr Open
December 2024
Universidad del Desarrollo Facultad de Medicina Clínica Alemana, Las Condes, Chile.
Introduction: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the regions most affected by the climate crisis, which is connected to international migration through a complex nexus. During the last years, migratory flows on the continent have increasingly included children and adolescents who are migrating through non-authorised crossing points. The existing literature shows how inequities negatively affect migrant children and the role that healthcare systems can play to mitigate them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare (Basel)
November 2024
Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy.
Background: Obesity is continually growing not only in medium- and high-income countries but also in low-income countries, from where increasing numbers of migrants arrive in Western countries. We aimed to investigate the frequency and characteristics of obesity in a sample of undocumented migrants, a population for which official health data are not available.
Methods: We collected demographic and socio-economic data and information on medical diagnoses and pharmacologic treatments for 341 undocumented migrants consecutively attending the outpatient clinic of a big non-governmental organisation in Milan, Italy, from March to July 2023.
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