Training, Migration and Retention of Doctors: Is Ireland a Danaides' Jar? Comment on "Doctor Retention: A Cross-sectional Study of How Ireland Has Been Losing the Battle".

In a context of global shortage of doctors, Ireland is in a paradoxical situation: the country trained a lot of medical students, native or foreign, but has difficulties to retain them. The paper of Brugha and his colleagues analyzes junior doctors' migration intentions, the reasons they leave, the likelihood of them returning and the characteristics of those who plan to emigrate. Results show determinants of junior doctor's emigration and may be useful to better calibrate the doctors' retention strategy of Ireland.

African Physician Migration to High-Income Nations: Diverse Motives to Emigrate ("We Are not Florence Nightingale") or Stay in Africa ("There Is No Place Like Home") Comment on "Doctor Retention: A Cross-sectional Study of How Ireland Has Been Losing the Battle".

Research in assessing the global and asymmetric flows of health workers in general, and international medical graduates in particular, is fraught with controversy. The complex goal of improving health status of the citizens of home nations while ensuring the right of health workers to migrate generates policy discussions and decisions that often are not adequately informed by evidence. In times of global public health crises like the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, the need for equitable distribution and adequate training of health workers globally becomes even more pressing. Brugha et al report suboptimal training and working conditions among Irish and foreign medical doctors practicing in Ireland, while predicting large-scale outward migration. We comment on health personnel migration and retention based on our own experience in this area of research. Drawing from our examination of medical migration dynamics from sub-Saharan Africa, we argue for greater consideration of health workforce retention in research and policy related to resource-limited settings. The right to health suggests the need to retain healthcare providers whose education was typically subsidized by the home nation. The right to migrate may conflict with the right to health. Hence, a deeper understanding is needed as to healthcare worker motives based on interactions of psychosocial processes, economic and material determinants, and quality of work environments.

International Medical Graduates in the Pediatric Workforce in the United States.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the supply, distribution, and characteristics of international medical graduates (IMGs) in pediatrics who provide patient care in the United States. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, combining data from the 2019 Physician Masterfile of the American Medical Association and the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates database. RESULTS: In total, 92 806 pediatric physicians were identified, comprising 9.4% of the entire US physician workforce. Over half are general pediatricians. IMGs account for 23.2% of all general pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. Of all IMGs in pediatrics, 22.1% or 4775 are US citizens who obtained their medical degree outside the United States or Canada, and 15.4% (3246) attended medical school in the Caribbean. Fifteen non-US medical schools account for 29.9% of IMGs currently in active practice in pediatrics in the United States. IMGs are less likely to work in group practice or hospital-based practice and are more likely to be employed in solo practice (compared with US medical school graduates). CONCLUSIONS: With this study, we provide an overview of the pediatric workforce, quantifying the contribution of IMGs. Many IMGs are US citizens who attend medical school abroad and return to the United States for postgraduate training. Several factors, including the number of residency training positions, could affect future numbers of IMGs entering the United States. Longitudinal studies are needed to better understand the implications that workforce composition and distribution may have for the care of pediatric patients.

Health professional mobility in the WHO European Region and the WHO Global Code of Practice: data from the joint OECD/EUROSTAT/WHO-Europe questionnaire.

WHO Member States adopted the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel 10 years ago. This study assesses adherence with the Code's principles and its continuing relevance in the WHO Europe region with regards to international recruitment of health workers. Data from the joint OECD/EUROSTAT/WHO-Europe questionnaire from 2010 to 2018 are analyzed to determine trends in intra- and inter-regional mobility of foreign-trained doctors and nurses working in case study destination countries in Europe. In 2018, foreign-trained doctors and nurses comprised over a quarter of the physician workforce and 5% of the nursing workforce in five of eight and four of five case study countries, respectively. Since 2010, the proportion of foreign-trained nurses and doctors has risen faster than domestically trained professionals, with increased mobility driven by rising East-West and South-North intra-European migration, especially within the European Union. The number of nurses trained in developing countries but practising in case study countries declined by 26%. Although the number of doctors increased by 27%, this was driven by arrivals from countries experiencing conflict and volatility, suggesting countries generally are increasingly adhering to the Code's principles on ethical recruitment. To support ethical recruitment practices and sustainable workforce development in the region, data collection and monitoring on health worker mobility should be improved.

Prevalence of International Medical Graduates From Muslim-Majority Nations in the US Physician Workforce From 2009 to 2019.

Importance: Historically, the US physician workforce has included a large number of international medical graduates (IMGs). Recent US immigration policies may affect the inflow of IMGs, particularly those who are citizens of Muslim-majority nations. Objectives: To provide an overview of the characteristics of IMGs from Muslim-majority nations, including their contributions to the US physician workforce, and to describe trends in the number of applications for certification to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates between 2019 and 2018, both overall and for citizens of Muslim-majority nations. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study, which included 1 065 606 US physicians listed in the 2019 American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and 156 017 applicants to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification process between 2009 and 2018, used a repeated cross-sectional study design to review the available data, including country of medical school attended, citizenship when entering medical school, and career information, such as present employment, specialty, and type of practice. Exposures: Country of citizenship when entering medical school. Main Outcomes and Measures: Physician counts and demographic information from the 2019 American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and applicant data from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates from 2009 to 2018. Results: Of 1 065 606 physicians in the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile, 263 029 (24.7%) were IMGs, of whom 48 354 were citizens of Muslim-majority countries at time of entry to medical school, representing 18.4% of all IMGs. Overall, 1 in 22 physicians in the US was an IMG from a Muslim-majority nation, representing 4.5% of the total US physician workforce. More than half of IMGs from Muslim-majority nations (24 491 [50.6%]) come from 3 countries: Pakistan (14 352 [29.7%]), Iran (5288 [10.9%]), and Egypt (4851 [10.0%]). The most prevalent specialties include internal medicine (10 934 [23.6%]), family medicine (3430 [7.5%]), pediatrics (2767 [5.9%]), and psychiatry (2251 [4.8%]), with 18 229 (38.1%) practicing in primary care specialties. The number of applicants for Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification from Muslim-majority countries increased from 2009 (3227 applicants) to 2015 (4244 applicants), then decreased by 2.1% in 2016 to 4254 applicants, 4.3% in 2017 to 4073 applicants, and 11.5% in 2018 to 3604 applicants. Much of this decrease could be attributed to fewer citizens from Pakistan (1042 applicants in 2015 to 919 applicants in 2018), Egypt (493 applicants in 2015 to 309 applicants in 2018), Iran (281 applicants in 2015 to 182 applicants in 2018), and Saudi Arabia (337 applicants in 2015 to 163 applicants in 2018) applying for certification. Conclusions and Relevance: Based on the findings of this study, the number of ECFMG applicants from Muslim-majority countries decreased from 2015 to 2018. The US physician workforce will continue to rely on IMGs for some time to come. To the extent that citizens from some countries no longer seek residency positions in the US, gaps in the physician workforce could widen.

Geographic Distribution of International Medical Graduate Residents in U.S. Neurosurgery Training Programs.

BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery residency in the United States is highly sought after by many international medical graduates (IMGs), and the geographic distribution of IMG candidates who have successfully matched has not been quantitatively explored to date. The aim of this study was to highlight the countries in which successfully matched IMG residents obtained their medical degrees and the states of their respective residency destinations. METHODS: All available resident lists of approved neurosurgical residency programs within the United States with at least 7 years of history were reviewed for IMGs in the most currently updated rosters. Demographic and geographic characteristics were summarized. RESULTS: A total of 1393 current neurosurgical residents in U.S. residency programs were identified from 99 programs across 39 states. Of 1393 residents, 87 were IMGs (6%). The IMG contingent originated from 39 countries, the most common of which was Lebanon (n = 14/87 [16%]). The Middle East was the most represented geographic region (n = 23/87 [26%]). The states with the highest number of IMGs were Kentucky, New York, and Texas (all n = 7/87 [8%]). CONCLUSIONS: IMGs constitute a small but appreciable portion of current neurosurgical residents in U.S. training programs. Particular countries have contributed more IMGs to neurosurgical programs than others, and particular states have higher counts and proportions of IMG residents than others. These outcomes are not geographically homogeneous, and the mechanisms by which IMG applicants successfully match to U.S. neurosurgery programs require more biographic granularity to elucidate.

Where are they working? A case study of twenty Cuban-trained South African doctors.

BACKGROUND: The year 2017 marked the 21st anniversary of the South African Cuban Medical Collaboration (SACMC) programme that offers disadvantaged South African (SA) students an opportunity for medical training in Cuba. Graduates are expected to return to practice at a primary care level in rural communities; however, little is known about the professional trajectories and career choices of graduates from the programme. AIM: This study explored the reasons why students enrolled in the programme, their professional and career choices as graduates and their career intentions. SETTING: The study setting was the whole of SA although participants were primarily drawn from KwaZulu-Natal. METHODS: An exploratory, qualitative case study used a purposive sampling strategy to gather data through semi-structured interviews from participants. RESULTS: Graduates (N = 20) of the SACMC programme were all practicing in local SA settings. Participants preferred the SACMC programme as it offered them a full scholarship for medical training. Nineteen doctors had fulfilled their obligation to work in rural areas. Thirteen doctors are engaged in primary healthcare practice, either as private practice generalists or as public service medical officers. Three doctors had completed specialty training: one doctor was training towards specialisation, one doctor was employed at national government and two doctors were employed as medical managers. At the time of the study, 11 doctors were practicing in rural locations and 19 had indicated a long-term intention to work and live within South Africa. CONCLUSION: The participants of this study who graduated from the SACMC programme are fulfilling their obligations in rural communities. They all intend to contribute to the SA medical workforce in the long-term.

Supply, distribution and characteristics of international medical graduates in family medicine in the United States: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: To describe the supply, distribution, and characteristics of international medical graduates (IMGs) in family medicine who provide patient care in the U.S. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design, using descriptive statistics on combined data from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and the American Medical Association, including medical school attended, country of medical school, and citizenship when entering medical school. RESULTS: In total, 118,817 physicians in family medicine were identified, with IMGs representing 23.8% (n = 28,227) of the U.S. patient care workforce. Of all 9579 residents in family medicine, 36.0% (n = 3452) are IMGS. In total, 35.9% of IMGs attended medical school in the Caribbean (n = 10,136); 19.9% in South-Central Asia (n = 5607) and 9.1% in South-Eastern Asia (n = 2565). The most common countries of medical school training were Dominica, Mexico, and Sint Maarten. Of all IMGs in family medicine who attended medical school in the Caribbean, 74.5% were U.S. citizens. In total, 40.5% of all IMGs in family medicine held U.S. citizenship at entry to medical school. IMGs comprise almost 40% of the family medicine workforce in Florida, New Jersey and New York. CONCLUSIONS: IMGs play an important role in the U.S. family medicine workforce. Many IMGs are U.S. citizens who studied abroad and then returned to the U.S. for graduate training. Given the shortage of family physicians, and the large number of IMGs in graduate training programs, IMGs will continue to play a role in the U.S. physician workforce for some time to come. Many factors, including the supply of residency training positions, could eventually restrict the number of IMGs entering the U.S., including those contributing to family practice.

Natives as international medical graduates: A nationwide analysis in Taiwan.

INTRODUCTION: International medical graduates (IMGs) play an important role in many Western countries because of globalization and physician shortages. While the IMGs investigated in most studies were immigrants, few studies have considered the situation in which people native to a given country have studied medicine abroad and then returned to practice in their home country. To illustrate that situation, our study aimed to investigate practicing IMGs in Taiwan by comparing practicing physicians' nationalities to the countries in which the medical schools the IMGs graduated from are located. METHODS: Data were obtained from the annual official statistics released by the Taiwan Medical Association from 1998 to 2017. RESULTS: The number of practicing IMGs in Taiwan increased from 834 (3.1% of 26,991 physicians) in 1998 to 1,733 (3.7% of 46,452) in 2017. Their medical schools were distributed across 37 countries, with graduates of schools in the Philippines (n = 550), Poland (n = 420), and Myanmar (n = 364) accounting for 77.0% of all practicing IMGs in 2017. However, only 29, 0, and 253 physicians were themselves Filipinos, Polish, and Myanmarese, respectively. CONCLUSION: Most of the practicing IMGs in Taiwan are native Taiwanese. The real impact of IMGs in health policy-making and the existing quota system of admissions to medical schools thus deserve further investigations.

Reconfiguring a One-Way Street: A Position Paper on Why and How to Improve Equity in Global Physician Training.

Large numbers of U.S. physicians and medical trainees engage in hands-on clinical global health experiences abroad, where they gain skills working across cultures with limited resources. Increasingly, these experiences are becoming bidirectional, with providers from low- and middle-income countries traveling to experience health care in the United States, yet the same hands-on experiences afforded stateside physicians are rarely available for foreign medical graduates or postgraduate trainees when they arrive. These physicians are typically limited to observership experiences where they cannot interact with patients in most U.S. institutions. In this article, the authors discuss this inequity in global medical education, highlighting the shortcomings of the observership training model and the legal and regulatory barriers prohibiting foreign physicians from engaging in short-term clinical training experiences. They provide concrete recommendations on regulatory modifications that would allow meaningful short-term clinical training experiences for foreign medical graduates, including the creation of a new visa category, the designation of a specific temporary licensure category by state medical boards, and guidance for U.S. host institutions supporting such experiences. By proposing this framework, the authors hope to improve equity in global health partnerships via improved access to meaningful and productive educational experiences, particularly for foreign medical graduates with commitment to using their new knowledge and training upon return to their home countries.

O recrutamento de médicos cubanos: análise comparativa entre Brasil e Portugal

A escassez de médico é questão sanitária internacional que afeta a fruição do direito à saúde, e que pode ser mitigada por meio de ações de cooperação internacional. O trabalho comparou as estratégias de recrutamento de medicos cubanos utilizadas por Portugal e Brasil, para o enfrentamento deste tema. Trata-se de estudos de casos múltiplos de natureza descritiva e que utilizou dados secundários, obtidos a partir da pesquisa documental. Portugal firmou em 2009, acordo de cooperação com a República de Cuba para a prestação de serviços médicos no setor público, na área de cuidados primários, em zonas geográficas com carência desse profissional. Houve alterações do acordo em 2010, 2011 e 2014. No Brasil, o provimento emergencial para áreas vulneráveis contou com 11.400 médicos cubanos, que deveriam ter, como requisitos mínimos, 10 anos de formação, e uma experiência internacional. As cooperações Brasil-Cuba e PortugalCuba, são exemplos importantes de iniciativas para a solução de questões emergenciais no campo da saúde.

Valores do trabalho: estudo junto a médicos estrangeiros do Programa Mais Médicos na região da Amures/SC / Work values: study with foreign physicians of the More Doctors Program in the region of Amures / SC

Ao implantar o Programa Mais Médicos (PMM) no Brasil, o Governo Federal pretende ampliar o acesso à consultas médicas a todos os brasileiros. O presente estudo problematiza algo subjacente a este Programa, os valores do trabalho, vez que esses profissionais encontram no Brasil uma cultura diferente da sua e um trabalho com características e especificidades próprias deste país. Nestes termos, o estudo objetivou analisar os valores do trabalho de médicos estrangeiros que atuam no PMM na região da Amures/SC. Especificamente pretendeu-se: (a) investigar a realização do trabalho de médicos estrangeiros em sua atuação em Saúde Publica; (b) investigar as relações sociais no contexto laboral dos médicos estrangeiros; (c) investigar a importância do prestígio profissional de médicos estrangeiros; e (d) investigar a importância da estabilidade profissional para os médicos estrangeiros em sua atuação em Saúde Publica. Para tanto, a pesquisa é de natureza aplicada; a forma de abordagem do problema é quantitativa. Em relação aos objetivos, é descritiva. Os procedimentos técnicos deste estudo o caracterizam como levantamento. Foram participantes 12 dos 16 médicos estrangeiros que integravam o PMM que atuavam na região da Amures/SC em 2016 e que voluntariamente se dispuseram à fornecer as informações necessárias e planejadas. O instrumento de coleta de dados foi a Escala de Valores Relativos ao Trabalho (EVT), desenvolvida e validada no Brasil por Porto e Tamayo (2003), composta por 45 itens divididos em quatro fatores: Realização no Trabalho, Relações Sociais, Prestigio e Estabilidade. Os principais resultados possibilitam constatar que a categoria que obteve índice mais elevado junto aos participantes foi ‘relações sociais’, com média geral de 4 numa escala que variou de 01 a 05 (entre nada importante e extremamente importante). Em sequência a categoria ‘realização no trabalho’ com média geral de 2,79, ‘prestigio’ com média geral de 1,9 e ‘estabilidade’ com a média geral de 1,8. Constatou-se que a categoria ‘relações sociais’ – que incluiu o relacionamento com os colegas, a manutenção da saúde e ajudar os outros a atingir as metas do grupo - foi definida por todos os respondentes como o principal valor agregado ao trabalho. Houve a confirmação de umas das hipóteses inicialmente proposta, pois se comprovou que os médicos estrangeiros que atuam no Brasil absorvem os valores do trabalho das organizações brasileiras. Observa-se ainda que existe um número significativo de estudos brasileiros sobre os valores do trabalho, no entanto, até o momento, não há estudos que fazem referência ao PMM.