From Resettlement to Recovery: Meeting the Unique Healthcare Needs of Refugee Women With Connie Visovsky, PhD, RN, ACNP, FAAN

Understanding the Unique Stressors Faced by Refugee Women

Refugee women often arrive in the United States after enduring significant hardship, including poor nutrition, lack of stable housing, and exposure to infectious diseases. “Refugee women often arrive having endured unimaginable journeys, facing not only the loss of home but also the daily struggle to secure basic needs like food, shelter, and safety,” Dr. Visovsky shares. “As clinicians, it’s vital to recognize that these foundational challenges deeply influence their health and recovery.”

These basic needs—nutrition, housing, sanitation, and transportation—are compounded by language barriers, limited education, and the mental health challenges that come with leaving behind social support systems.

Gender-Specific Challenges for Women

Female refugees face additional, gender-specific stressors. “Women have unique stressors in that they have a menstrual cycle, so access to menstrual sanitation and privacy are problems,” Dr. Visovsky notes. Reproductive health needs, caregiving responsibilities, and heightened risks of violence—including sexual assault and trafficking—further exacerbate their vulnerability. “Women are also in a unique caregiving role. Often, they’re the primary caregivers, especially in certain cultures,” she adds, emphasizing the extra burden this places on their health and well-being.

The Importance of Cultural Humility in Care

Providing effective care for refugee women requires cultural humility and a commitment to building trust. “Cultural humility means understanding our own expertise or lack thereof and our openness to other cultures and ways of doing things,” Dr. Visovsky says. She stresses the importance of direct communication with patients, even when using interpreters, and the need to allocate extra time for appointments to address language and cultural barriers. “We need to have respectful interactions and learn from others,” she advises. Recognizing differences in healthcare expectations—such as appointment scheduling and discussing sensitive topics like cancer or mental health—is essential for fostering trust and improving outcomes.

Policy and Practice Changes Needed

Dr. Visovsky calls for expanded health literacy programs and interpreter services, as well as training for healthcare workers in cultural humility and refugee health. “Health literacy is where you help people understand healthcare information,” she explains, advocating for materials at accessible reading levels and the use of pictorial aids. She also recommends peer-to-peer education and group classes, which have proven effective in other countries. “Using peer-to-peer education systems is very helpful, especially in helping people access programs and navigate our healthcare system,” she says.

Women’s Health Week: Advocacy and Compassion in Action

In honor of Women’s Health Week, Dr. Visovsky urges clinicians to recognize the unique needs of refugee women and to champion their well-being in both practice and policy. “Despite the ongoing political divide on immigration, we as healthcare workers have to provide respectful, culturally appropriate care to our patients,” she emphasizes. She calls on healthcare workers to be advocates—not only for individual patients, but also for systemic changes that address gaps in care and access. By embracing empathy, cultural humility, and advocacy, clinicians can make a profound difference in the lives of refugee women, ensuring that their unique voices and health needs are heard and addressed.

Key Takeaways for Oncology Clinicians

• Refugee women face complex, intersecting challenges that impact their health, including nutrition, housing, language, and mental health
• Gender-specific needs—such as reproductive health, caregiving, and vulnerability to violence—require special attention
• Practicing cultural humility, building trust, and allowing extra time for appointments are essential for effective care
• Expanding health literacy, interpreter services, and culturally appropriate mental health resources is critical
• Advocacy for policy changes and targeted programs can help address systemic gaps in care

About Dr. Visovsky

Connie Visovsky, PhD, RN, ACNP, FAAN, is a Professor Emeritus who recently retired from being a Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, Florida. She has extensive experience as an oncology nurse practitioner and researcher, including investigating the roles of exercise behavior and gait/balance training for improving neuropathy in patients with breast cancer, and global health work in Latin America and Southeast Asia. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publication focused on nursing management of patients with cancer.