Source country perceptions, experiences, and recommendations regarding health workforce migration: a case study from the
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RESEARCH
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Source country perceptions, experiences, and recommendations regarding health workforce migration: a case study from the Philippines Kanchan Marcus1*, Gabriella Quimson2,3 and Stephanie D Short4
Abstract Background: The Philippines continues to overproduce nurses for export. Little first-hand evidence exists from leading organisations in the Philippines concerning their experiences and perceptions in relation to Filipino nurse migration. What are their views about health workforce migration? This paper addresses this research gap by providing a source country perspective on Filipino nurse migration to Australia. Methods: Focus-group interviews were conducted with key informants from nine Filipino organisations in the Philippines by an Australian-Filipino research team. The organisations were purposively selected and contacted in person, by phone, and/or email. Qualitative thematic analysis was performed using a coding framework. Results: Health workforce migration is perceived to have both positive and negative consequences. On the one hand, emigration offers a welcome opportunity for individual Filipino nurses to migrate abroad in order to achieve economic, professional, lifestyle, and social benefits. On the other, as senior and experienced nurses are attracted overseas, this results in the maldistribution of health workers particularly affecting rural health outcomes for people in developing countries. Problems such as ‘volunteerism’ also emerged in our study. Conclusions: In the context of the WHO (2010) Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel it is to be hoped that, in the future, government recruiters, managers, and nursing leaders can utilise these insights in designing recruitment, orientation, and support programmes for migrant nurses that are more sensitive to the experience of the Philippines’ education and health sectors and their needs. Keywords: Health workforce migration, Nurse migration, Philippines
Background There is a global shortage of approximately 2.3 million physicians, nurses, and midwives with 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa experiencing critical shortages [1]. The global mobility of nurses is well documented [2-6] and the pattern of health workforce migration has become increasingly dynamic involving several countries. Reliance on Filipino nurses is an international phenomenon, and the demand for nursing services is predicted to exceed supply by almost 30% in 2020 in the USA [7]. Draining highly skilled professionals, typically from a developing country, negatively impacts health outcomes in developing * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Health Systems, Global Populations Faculty Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Science Road, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
countries through the maldistribution of professionals and an inadequate skill mix of health professionals. Local shortages of health workers in developing countr
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