Managing the migration
of health-care workers toward transfer of knowledge, skill and professionalism:
The Pharmacists perspective
Oladapo Augustus, Adeoyo Maternity Teaching
Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
dappkem@yahoo.com
Migration of health-care workers for
various reasons is considered inevitable for now and is posing great
challenges to both the source countries and the destination countries.
About 65% of all economically active migrants who have moved to developed
countries are classified as “highly-skilled”. The highly
skilled health professionals so recognised among this group of the
health-care workforce are physicians, dentists, pharmacists and nurses.
The health care systems of a nation are of crucial importance to both
the economy and the well being of their citizens. There is therefore
the quest in many developing nations for strategies to fully enjoy
the impact of the currently experienced rapid innovation and diffusion
of health technologies from developed nations. The continuing disparities
in working conditions, management of health system and professional
development between richer and poorer nations offer a great deal of “pull” towards
the more developed nations.
This paper considers the factors affecting and the challenges of migration
of health-care workers with reference to both the giving and the receiving
countries. It further seeks to prove that proper management of the
migration of healthcare workers can be mutually beneficial to both
the country of origin and the country of destination. To this end,
the paper attempts to identify some strategies that can be adopted
to ensure that migration contributes to the evolvement of a well-managed
health system in the immigrants’ countries of origin. The role
of international organisations in delivering adequate technical support
to developing countries, advising in the management of international
migration flows and promoting intergovernmental cooperation to achieve
the set goal is highlighted in the paper. Conclusively the paper draws
attention to the proposition that International migration of health
professionals has a proven ability of facilitating the transfer of
knowledge, skill and professionalism for the enhancement of the quality
of health care delivery system of the affected developing nations.
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