Mobility and migration of health care workers

Abstract

IntroductionThe estimated shortage of about 15 million health and social care professionals, including over 6 million nurses, together with the significant phenomenon of international migration of such professionals, emerged, during COVID-19, with even more evidence. During the pandemic the danger of a collapse of health systems in many areas due to a shortage of staff was manifest. In addition to this, low-income countries are witnessing a decrease in their health and social care workforce resulting in further inability to ensure essential levels of professional coverage to deal with populations' needs.MethodsAn integrative review analysis, in 4 languages (English, Italian, Spanish, French) of trend in terms of legislation and policy documents were conducted using health and social database and gray literature. 29 different document were include in this review.ResultsA number of initiatives have been developed in order to establish international and/or bilateral obligations among countries; however, this showed to be insufficient. There is therefore the need to set up a joint effort/actions among different stakeholders such as Government, Higher Education institution, International Labor health market actors, and NGOs in the field of migration, labor and training of health and social care professionals in order to better meet health and social care needs worldwide.ConclusionsIt is timely to develop specific actions aimed at setting up a passport for health and social care professionals which allows to guarantee prior certification and accreditation of skills by independent agencies; countries should work together to improve retention of health care professionals in their job. Moreover, every effort should be done to enhance younger generation interest in health and social carrier, as opportunity to really makes difference in other lives and to play an active role in the development of society.Key messages Without health and social care professionals, there is no health.Migration is a serious issues and opportunity.