Migration of nurses in Australia: where and why?
Se Ok Ohr A B C D , Vicki Parker A B , Sarah Jeong B and Terry Joyce CA Hunter New England Area Health Service, Locked Bag 1, Hunter Regional Mail Centre, NSW 2305, Australia.
B School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
C Discipline of General Practice, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: seok.ohr@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 16(1) 17-24 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY09051
Published: 17 March 2010
Abstract
The Australian health care workforce has benefited from an increasing migration of nurses over the past decades. The nursing profession is the largest single health profession, making up over half of the Australian health care workforce. Migration of nurses into the Australian nursing workforce impacts significantly on the size of the workforce and the capacity to provide health care to the Australian multicultural community. Migration of nurses plays an important role in providing a solution to the ongoing challenges of workforce attraction and retention, hence an understanding of the factors contributing to nurse migration is important. This paper will critically analyse factors reported to impact on migration of nurses to Australia, in particular in relation to: (1) globalisation; (2) Australian society and nursing workforce; and (3) personal reasons. The current and potential implications of nurse migration are not limited to the Australian health care workforce, but also extend to political, socioeconomic and other aspects in Australia.
Additional keywords: contributing factors for migration, nursing workforce.
Acknowledgements
An abridged version of this paper was presented by Se Ok Ohr at the 2009 General Practice and Primary Health Care Research Conference: Driving Change, 15–17 July 2009, Crown Promenade Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. We gratefully acknowledge the fellowship and travel grant provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Researcher Development Program.
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