Mobility of filipino nurses: Interviews in Australia and the Philippines

The Philippines had 7.2million Filipino migrants all over the world in 2005, a predominant outsourcing country of nurses [1]. Ease of international health migration is intensifying ethical concerns where developing countries lose some of their best qualified health workers to developed countries. The purpose of our Australian Research Council (ARC) Project with Partner Organisation; Queensland Health (Australia) was to build an ethical and sustainable model for health professional recruitment to Australia, with a case study of nurses from the Philippines, ensuring fairness to the individual nurses, the source country and the recruiting country. Interviews were conducted (and recorded) with Directors of Nursing, nursing peers and Filipino qualified nurses (n=15) in Australia, & focus group discussions were conducted with key informants in the Philippines (n=18). Content and thematic analysis were performed. Findings highlighted challenges with the English language for Filipino registered nurses and several felt they were employed in a lower position to that of their skills. Key informant results revealed concerns surrounding standard of nursing education in some areas and the interest of government officials to create an ethical form of bilateral agreement or process for nurse recruitment to Australia. The Philippines receives remittances from Filipino nurses working abroad which in turn benefits the government and many families. Significance of the study was timely with the release of the WHO Code on International Health Personnel Recruitment in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. Ethical and sustainable health workforce agreements between source and recruiting countries will enable fairer recruitment and integration of global health workers.

1.            Lorenzo, F.M., et al., Migration of health workers: Country case study Philippines, in Working Paper, Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies, International, Labour, and Office, Editors. 2006, International Labour Office: Geneva.