Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions



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CURRENT ISSUE BACK ISSUES SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE ABOUT JCEHP FOR AUTHORS JCEHP AWARD SEARCH		Volume 25 (1) Volume 25, Issue 1, Winter 2005 J Contin Educ Health Prof 2005; 25(1):15 ORIGINAL ARTICLES Physician Migration: Donor Country Impact A.P.R. Aluwihare, MA, MChir(Cantab), FRCS (Eng) A b s t r a c t Physician migration from the developing to developed region of a country or the world occurs for reasons of financial, social, and job satisfaction. It is an old phenomenon that produces many disadvantages for the donor region or nation. The difficulties include inequities with the provision of health services, financial loss, loss of educated families, potential employers, and role models and diminished resources with which to conduct medical education. Staff for undergraduate and postgraduate education is depleted. The critical mass for research and development becomes difficult to achieve or maintain, and these disadvantages are not compensated for adequately by increased contacts, the introduction of new ideas, or financial inflow to the donor region or country. The political will of governments and international organizations regarding treaties about the ethics of physician recruitment is called into question by discrepancies between the text of agreements and the ground realities. Amelioration of this situation requires economic development and imaginative schemes by the donors and, ideally, ethical considerations from recipient governments. At the very least, adequate compensation should be made to the donor country for the gain obtained by the host country. Lessons for Practice The rights of patients and ethical considerations must be factored into the debate on physician migration. Each country, especially in the economic North, must tailor its health services to the human resource it can produce. Each country must pay for the human resource it imports at a rate commensurate to what it saved by importing a skilled professional. Each country must aim to maximize job satisfaction and care of its own graduates. Undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education suffer as a result of physician migration. All 3 phases must include not only knowledge and skill content but also value system development that may help to reduce migration Key Words: Physician migration, access to health services, continuing medical education, continuing professional development, undergraduate medical education, postgraduate medical education, ethical considerations
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