Migration of health worker - Essay Example

Migration of Health Workers Introduction Health workers refer to a group of people who engage in actions whose prime aim is to boost healthcare (McColl 961). Health work embraces individuals who offer health services to others. These individuals include nurses, doctors, midwives, laboratory technicians, pharmacists or support and management workers. Support and management workers include hospital managers, cooks, financial officers, cleaners and drivers (Shah 23). This paper will evaluate Karen McColl’s publication concerning the recent trend of the migration of health workers and their impacts.

Throughout the world, there are approximately 60 million health personnel. About one-third caters for the support and management personnel, while the other two-thirds offer healthcare services. Without these workforces, treatment and prevention of illnesses cannot progress in health care thus retarding health care provision (McColl 961).The reason behind the migration of health workersSimilar to workers in all fields, health workers tend to lean on where the work setting is paramount. Income is a vital motivator for migration.

However, it is not the only reason for migration (Shah 23). Other factors include the need for a greater job that satisfies an individual, a search for greater career chances, and a need for better management and governance. Other minor factors include evading political unsteadiness, warfare, and the risk of hostility in the workplace. Migration is a regular occurrence with health workers (Connell 45). Health workers tend to migrate from poor areas to rich cities inside a country. After this, what follows is migrating to more high-income states.

There are also changes from the public sector to the private in most nations, mainly if there are significant changes in income levels (McColl 961). Globalization has assisted in increasing international migration. Simultaneously, a need for health personnel has gone up in high-income states. These states are not training adequate health workers, so they tend to poach them from the developing nations. The existing workforce in developed states seems to be ageing and has led to the recent migration of fresh workers into the states to cater for the ageing workers.

A need for greater health services is also rising because of the ageing citizens and a rise of chronic diseases such as diabetes, mainly in rural places. In some of the middle-income states with adequate health education systems such as Jamaica and Mauritius, a noteworthy share of students, mainly in nursing school, start their education with an aim of migrating. The students mostly think of better income opportunities. Some states, particularly Mauritius, are planning to benefit from the demand for imported health workers by purposely schooling graduates for international opportunities (McColl 961).

Impact of migration of health workersThe migration of health personnel to foreign states has both negative and positive outcomes. When a noteworthy number of nurses and doctors depart, the states that funded their tutoring lose the return on their investments. Monetary loss is not the most negative impact (Connell 45). When a state has a delicate health system, the loss of its health personnel can cause the whole scheme to crumple, with the outcome evident in the number of lives lost. In conclusion, with an optimistic view, migration creates billions of dollars in payments of debts every year (Connell 45).

The money is taken back to native countries by the migrants. It also leads to a drop in poverty levels. Health personnel may also return and bring noteworthy skills to their native countries.Works CitedConnell, John. Migration and the Globalization of Health Care: The Health Worker Exodus? Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2010. Print. Connell, John. Sub-Saharan Africa: Beyond the health worker migration crisis. New York: Elsevier Publishers, 2007. Print. Connell, John. The International Migration of Health Workers.

London: Routledge Publishers, 2007. Print. McColl, Karen. “Medicine in Developing Countries.” British Medical Journal 337.7676 (2008): 961. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. Shah, Rebecca. The International Migration of Health Workers: Ethics, Rights and Justice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publisher, 2010. Print.