International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Migration, Retention and Return Migration of Health Professionals; Comment on “Doctor Retention: A Cross-sectional Study of How Ireland Has Been Losing the Battle”

Document Type : Commentary

Authors
Latha S. Davda 1
David R. Radford 1
Jennifer E. Gallagher 2
1 University of Portsmouth Dental Academy, Portsmouth, UK
2 Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
10.34172/ijhpm.2020.225
Abstract
Medical education and training of health professionals are linked with their recruitment and retention. Practising as a competent health professional requires life-long continuous training and therefore training structures in health systems appear to influence doctors job satisfaction, their well-being and their intentions to remain in that health system. The commentary critiques aspects of the paper on doctors retention in Ireland, while drawing some parallels with the United Kingdom. There appears to be an emerging type of health professional migrants ‘education tourists’ who travel to other countries to obtain medical education creating new routes of migration and this presents new challenges to source and destination countries. The global shortage of doctors and other health professionals further exacerbates health inequalities as seen in the present pandemic and therefore the increased need for research into health professionals’ migration and their integration.
Keywords
Retention
Migration Motivation
International Recruitment
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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 10, Issue 10
October 2021
Pages 667-669

  • Received Date 27 July 2020
  • Revised Date 31 October 2020
  • Accepted Date 02 November 2020
  • First Published Date 23 November 2020
  • Published Date 01 October 2021