This report examines the trends and policy issues relating to the international mobility of one key group of knowledge workers: nurses. The increase in 'knowledge worker' migration, partly as a result of developed countries attempting to solve skill shortages by recruiting from developing countries, is a key component of current international migration patterns. The report examines trends in international recruitment and migration of nurses. It uses data from professional registers and censuses to examine the scale of the movement of nurses. Core data from a selection of five 'destination countries' is used to track trends from source countries. The five destination countries are Australia, Ireland, Norway, UK and USA. Information is also assessed from four 'source' areas - the Caribbean, Ghana, South Africa and the Philippines.
Human Resources
Several countries are increasingly relying on immigration as a means of coping with domestic shortages of health care professionals. This trend has led to concerns that in many of the source countries - especially within Africa - the outflow of health care professionals is adversely affecting the health care system. This paper examines the role of wages in the migration decision and discusses the likely effect of wage increases in source countries in slowing migration flows.
The quality of health care is hugely dependent on the skills of health professionals. Clinical skills centres are neutral and protected settings in which a variety of skills and techniques can be taught. In developing countries, resource constraints and pressure to direct skilled staff away from teaching to working in health service facilities can limit the opportunities for developing and implementing an effective training curriculum.
The authors surveyed workforces in southern Africa to determine HIV prevalence among formally employed, largely male populations. Voluntary, anonymous, unlinked seroprevalence surveys of 34 workforces with 44 000 employees were carried out in South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia in 2000-2001. Average HIV prevalence for the entire sample was 16.6%. Country-wide prevalence was 14.5% in South Africa, 17.9% in Zambia, and 24.6% in Botswana.
In order to meet the target of delivering simplified, standardised antiretroviral treatment services to 3 million people by the end of 2005, it is estimated that up to 100,000 people need to be trained. These figures include those involved in managing and delivering antiretroviral treatment services; those working on testing and counselling and other entry points to antiretroviral treatment; and community treatment supporters assisting people who are receiving medication. This document from the World Health Organization (WHO) outlines their strategic plan to support the development, strengthening and sustaining of the workforce.
South Africa's health sector stands to lose a large percentage of its workforce to HIV/AIDS, warns a report by the country's Human Sciences Research Council and the Medical University of South Africa. The study was conducted in four South African provinces - KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West. "We found that an estimated 15.7 percent of health workers employed in the public and private health facilities located [in the four provinces] were living with HIV/AIDS in 2002," the report said.
This paper looks at different possible policy responses to the emigration of highly skilled persons from developing countries (the brain drain) with the goal of minimising its adverse effects and promoting the sharing of gains between source and host countries. It focuses on three policy approaches: retention, return and circulation of skills. It argues that the best strategy to deal with the problem of loss of skilled labour is one based on the concept of circulation of skills, which yields mutual benefits for both sending and host countries.
Norwegian Nurses Association International (NNAI) Secretary Per Godtland Kristensen has described as unethical the practice whereby rich countries rob poor nations of nurses through mass recruitment. Speaking at a joint Press briefing for NNAI, Zambia Nurses Association (ZNA) and International Council of Nurses (ICN) in Lusaka, Mr Kristensen said rich nations must not be allowed to recruit nurses from developing countries en-masse.
At least 110 Cuban doctors are expected to arrive in the country at the end of this month under the Zimbabwe-Cuba Joint Commission. Head of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Zimbabwe Dr Felipe Delgado Bustillo said the doctors would serve in the country for two years. "The doctors will be working under the comprehensive health programme launched by President Fidel Castro in 1998, which is aimed at providing something like a donation to other people specially those in Africa in solving various health related problems," said Dr Bustillo.
Immigration is an issue that elicits heated views from all sides of the political and economic spectrum. In the 21st century, how might we expect our lives and societies to be affected by changes in immigration? In Part One of a two-part series, economist Lant Pritchett argues that there are five irresistible forces setting the world up for a new wave of mass migration. Topping the list are the huge cross-national inequalities in wages and standards of living. Differences in labour demand across countries comprise another pressure promoting migration. Population growth imbalances also contribute to the trend, with aging populations of wealthy countries needing younger workers to help support national pension plans.