International Nurse Recruitment in India

Abstract

Objective. This paper describes the practice of international recruitment of Indian nurses in the model of a “business process outsourcing” of comprehensive training‐cum‐recruitment‐cum‐placement for popular destinations like the United Kingdom and United States through an agency system that has acquired growing intensity in India. Findings. Despite the extremely low nurse to population ratio in India, hospital managers in India are not concerned about the growing exodus of nurses to other countries. In fact, they are actively joining forces with profitable commercial ventures that operate as both training and recruiting agencies. Most of this activity is concentrated in Delhi, Bangalore, and Kochi. Conclusions. Gaps in data on nursing education, employment, and migration, as well as nonstandardization of definitions of “registered nurse,” impair the analysis of international migration of nurses from India, making it difficult to assess the impact of migration on vacancy rates. One thing is clear, however, the chain of commercial interests that facilitate nurse migration is increasingly well organized and profitable, making the future growth of this business a certainty.

Nurse migration and health workforce planning: Ireland as illustrative of international challenges

“…India and the Philippines, countries from which Ireland has sourced the bulk of its migrant nursing workforce have reported the loss of their more experienced staff to emigration [7,51,52]. From an ethical perspective, there is a need for destination countries to identify and attempt to mitigate any negative effects of health worker migration on the health systems of source countries by way of circular migration programmes, bilateral agreements, skills and knowledge sharing [22]; and not assume that countries that produce large numbers of nurses and doctors will not experience negative effects from their emigration.…”

Marginalised Care: Migrant Workers Caring for Older People in Ireland

“…There is an extensive literature documenting the reliance on migrant carers in developed western health and social care systems (Pittman et al 2007;Buchan 2007;Lorenzo et al 2007;Khadria 2007). However, these studies primarily concentrate on high-skill health professionals and rarely recognise the specific specialities and context of sub-sector care regimes.…”

Overseas nurse recruitment: Ireland as an illustration of the dynamic nature of nurse migration

“…Although ethical guidelines published by the Department of Health and Children in 2001 [29] recommend that Irish employers recruit only from countries that support the overseas nurse recruitment, compliance with these guidelines does not mean that Ireland's recruitment of significant numbers of nurses is without consequence for the sending countries. India and the Philippines, countries from which Ireland has sourced the bulk of its migrant nursing workforce, have reported the loss of their more experienced nursing staff to emigration [30,31], resulting in emigration-induced ward and hospital closures [30] and mass resignations [31].…”