Profile and determinants of intention to migrate by early career doctors in Nigeria: A report from CHARTING study

Abstract

Introduction Recently, there has been an upsurge in the migration of medical personnel, especially early career doctors (ECDs) from low‐ and middle‐income countries, Nigeria inclusive, to high‐income countries with wide‐ranging consequences on the social and economic systems of the donor countries. This study assessed the profile and determinants of intention to emigrate by ECDs in Nigeria. Methods A cross‐sectional study conducted among Nigerian ECDs from nine tertiary hospitals. Socio‐demographic characteristics, intention & reasons to emigrate and willingness to return were collected using a self‐administered semi‐structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Results A total number of 763 ECDs participated in the study. The majority (88.2%) were less than 40 years of age and the male to female ratio was 2:1. Majority of the participants (69.4%) received monthly income ≤833 US Dollar. About two‐thirds of ECDs had plans to emigrate and most to developed countries. Common reasons for intention to migrate were better quality of postgraduate training, improved quality of life and better remuneration. Conclusion High proportion of Nigerian ECDs has intention to emigrate out with potential adverse effect on the fragile health system in the country.

Migration Intent of Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kosovo

“…HCWs who perceived that the pandemic did not affect their interpersonal relationships and who were neutral towards the governmental response had lower odds of increased migration intent after the pandemic. These findings relate to those of a study by Adeniyi et al [ 36 ] before the pandemic, which reported that political factors had a low influence (5.5%) on Nigerian HCWs. Instead, they reported that family ties and the desire to serve the nation were the main motives to stay in their home countries.…”

“…Physicians were generally more likely to report intention to migrate than nurses and other professionals. A recent migrant profiling study by Adeniyi et al [ 36 ] reported that early-career physicians migrate to seek better postgraduate training and higher salaries. In general, healthcare professionals from developing countries migrate to countries with robust health systems and more opportunities for advancement [ 22 , 37 ].…”

“…Similarly, higher education was a strong predictor of migration willingness. Though our study did not explore professional motivations, migrant physicians with more highly specialised profiles are reported to have more well-defined career orientation and thus favour migration due to the lack of professional opportunities in their country of origin [ 29 , 36 , 42 ]. Similarly, Humphries et al’s [ 43 ] typology assessment of doctors showed that career-oriented physicians were the most common type (60%) of non-EU migrant doctors in Ireland.…”

Are We Facing a Radical Change in the Migration Behavior of Medical Graduates from Less Developed Countries? Demographic Profile vs. Social Push Factors

“…In order to test the presented research hypotheses, we applied a binary logit model, both as a result of the type of data analyzed, and as a result of the fact that the literature in this field predominantly uses this type of questionnaire analysis. Similar studies [ 29 , 31 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ] that analyzed the determinants of the migration intention of medical university students or medical staff used logistic regression in their econometric analysis; thus, for the binary dependent variable, it is the most suitable method of econometric analysis [ 70 ].…”

“…The unanimous opinion of the specialists is that the motivation for mobility is provided by the clearly increasingly attractive opportunities for a professional career. If specialization internships target professional subfields and an education level/profile of interest to the host country, the professional career continues, most of the time through occupation in the host country [ 15 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. In addition, for less developed countries, the motivation of substantially better remuneration than in the country of origin makes the investment in education for the health sector open to being capitalized on in a different market to the location of professional education/training.…”