Process- and outcome evaluation of an orientation programme for refugee health professionals

Background: Refugee health professionals experience several barriers on their path to reentering their original occupations in host countries. Several training programmes exist in order to address these barriers and enable a successful labour market integration.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate a specific orientation programme for the labour market integration of refugee health professionals in Germany. The programme lasts three months and comprises three elements (German technical terminology language course, cross-cultural coaching and a job shadowing).
Design: A mixed-methods design was implemented to evaluate the programme. To assess participants’ skills improvement and satisfaction, self-developed questionnaires were used. For in-depth-evaluation of individual experiences, qualitative interviews were conducted at four time points (pre, half-time, post, follow-up) with both programme participants and programme providers about their experiences.
Results: Participants described impacts on their personal situation and improvement of their language, professional and formal skills. Some participants also described negative effects mostly due to unsupervised shadowing. Additional barriers, such as cost of travel were identified as challenges for participation.
Conclusion: Training programmes may affect language skills, professional skills and formal resources. However, programme providers need to anticipate negative effects and introduce actions for preventing negative outcomes. Moreover, programmes should be designed to reduce work-related fear and anxiety amongst participants.