Searching
the World – Following Three Graduating Classes of a Nigerian Medical
School
Ike Anya, Bristol North Primary Care Trust, King Square House, Bristol, UK
Chikwe Ihekweazu
Enyi Anosike
Much research has been published about
the career pathways of medical graduates in the industrialized world,
but very little is known about medical graduates from developing countries.1
In an increasingly “globalized” world, there has been much
debate about the ethics of recruiting doctors from developing countries
to work in wealthier industrialised countries,2, 3 and various estimates
have been made of the number of medical professionals who migrate each
year, very little empirical data exists to quantify the rate of migration
or destination of medical graduates from developing countries.4 As
members of three graduating classes from the College of Medicine of
the University of Nigeria, currently working in the UK, we decided
to examine our the career pathways of members of our three classes.
This paper begins with an introduction to why and how we became interested
in this topic and goes on to discuss the methodological and practical
issues we faced in carrying out this type of study, beginning from
conceptualisation to publishing of the preliminary results. In the
final section, we examine and discuss our findings, the implications
and plans for further research.
1. Dambisya YM The fate and career destinations of doctors who qualified
at Uganda's Makerere Medical School in 1984: retrospective cohort study.
BMJ. 2004; 329: 600 - 601.
2. Vikram Patel, Recruiting doctors from poor countries: the great
brain robbery? BMJ 2003;327:926-928.
3. Scott ML, Whelan A, Dewdney J, Zwi AB "Brain drain" or
ethical recruitment? Med J Aust. 2004 Feb 16; 180(4): 174-6
4. Stilwell B, Diallo K, Zurn P, et al. Migration of health-care workers
from developing countries: strategic approaches to its management.
Bull World Health Organ, Aug. 2004, vol.82, no.8, p.595-600. ISSN 0042-9686.
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