Physician migration at its roots: a study on the emigration preferences and plans among medical students in Romania

Abstract

BackgroundMigration of healthcare workers is receiving increased attention worldwide. In Europe, the creation of a border-free labor market and its expansion with the EU enlargements of 2004, 2007, and 2013 endowed health professionals with the right to provide services and to relocate to another EU Member State. For the Romanian doctors, the EU-wide recognition of the medical degree obtained in Romania has created new opportunities, while inadequate working conditions and relatively low salaries pushed many of them to search for employment abroad. As there is considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of the Romanian physicians’ exodus, we performed a survey to assess the emigration intention of future Romanian doctors.MethodsThe study was conducted over three consecutive years: 2013, 2014, and 2015 at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu” Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The self-administrated questionnaire included 19 questions regarding students’ emigration intentions.ResultsAll the 957 license-degree students participated in the study. In this study, 84.7% of subjects planned on seeking employment abroad after graduation. A large number of the students who have participated in the study have already started preparing for emigration, 21.7% of those who wished to migrate had already performed at least one Erasmus mobility in their country of choice, 44.5% have been enrolled in a language course, and 42.7% have searched for jobs on the Internet.ConclusionsThe majority of Romanian medical students considering migration see it as a serious alternative to the continuation of their professional training started in Romania. The findings of this study are upsetting and can impact both policy crafting and future research. Structural reforms in the healthcare provisions are needed in order to facilitate the retention of medical personnel. Romanian policy makers need to devise a comprehensive national health workforce plan to deal with physician migration.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12960-017-0181-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Medical Students’ Working Preferences - A Pilot Study in Romania

“…The factors that impact migration in case of health professionals are poor working conditions, low salaries and low development of health system' services (Siyam and dal Poz 2014). The phenomenon of "Brain Drain" which refers to the departure of health workers from one country to another for better living and working conditions is present in Romania as well (Suciu et al 2017). …”

“…In 2010, each month, more than 300 Romanian doctors applied and received a certificate to leave the country (Suciu et al 2017). "Therefore, the number of doctors in Romanian hospitals decreased from 20648 doctors in 2011 to 14487 in 2012 and to 13521 in 2014" (Boncea 2015).…”

“…Another study (Suciu et al 2017) which was conducted at the Medical School in Cluj-Napoca identified the factors that impact students' intention to migrate. These factors refer to the salary, the working and living conditions and their dissatisfaction with the Romanian healthcare system.…”

“…These factors refer to the salary, the working and living conditions and their dissatisfaction with the Romanian healthcare system. Moreover, another important aspect that would determine students to migrate is the "under the table "payments offered by patients, which is discussed in the media and affects the image of the doctors (Suciu et al 2017). …”

The Attrition and Migration Behaviour among Hungarian Radiographers

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