Recruitment

In rural areas across Australia the recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of medical specialists, including psychiatrists, has been a long outstanding problem. Latrobe Regional Hospital reached a major crisis in 1994, with only one psychiatrist and a large number of vacancies. This led to a focus on the recruitment and retention of psychiatrists in order to improve this essential element of the workforce. [from abstract]

The NSW Department of Health is responsible for managing nurse supply. It needs to identify the extent and nature of shortages and develop ways to attract, retain and best manage nurses working in public hospitals. This audit looks at how nurses are managed in four of our public hospitals and examines how the Department has responded to expected nurse shortages. It also highlights actions that have helped reduce the number of nurses leaving hospitals. [from foreword]

The appealing, modern websites of the private agencies specializing in the recruitment of health care professionals for Western markets invite the loggers-on to explore a myriad of opportunities. So fierce is the competition to secure scarce health care professionals that private recruitment agencies stage promotional events and aggressive recruitment campaigns in supplying countries, tripping over each other to attract suitable candidates. How did the shortages of health care professionals become so acute, and how did international migration come to be viewed as one of the solutions to the problem?

This document highlights the potential advantages and perils of career moves and migration for nurses, describes some of the main nurse migration trends and establishes a list of critical questions as an ethical framework for nurse recruitment. [adapted from author]

The aim of the Code of Practice is to promote high standards of practice in the international recruitment and employment of healthcare professionals. This is underpinned by the principle that any international recruitment of healthcare professionals should not prejudice the healthcare systems of developing countries. Therefore a key component of the Code of Practice is to preclude the active recruitment of healthcare professionals from developing countries, unless there exists a government-to-government agreement to support recruitment activities. The Code of Practice also acknowledges the reality that the international movement of healthcare professionals is a long established practice that will continue.

The Code develops a consensus approach to dealing with the problem of international recruitment of health workers, while remaining sensitive to the needs of recipient countries and the migratory rights of individual health professionals. The Code covers issues of transparency, fairness, mutuality of benefits, compensation/reparation/restitution, selection procedures, and registration. [Description from author]

The nurse is the single most important frontline health worker. Without nurses the clinics, community health centres and hospitals cannot function. It is therefore critical that nurse education and the supply of nurses form an integral part of transformation of health services in South Africa. According to the Department of Health there is a need to significantly increase the production of all categories of nurses in order to fulfil the requirements of South Africa. Attracting new recruits to the profession is an integral part of increasing production. It is for this reason that a study was undertaken to assess the attitudes of school leavers towards taking up nursing as a profession, and the reasons for these attitudes.

Many countries are using the strategy of international recruitment to make up for shortages of health professionals. This is often to the detriment of health systems in the poorest parts of the world. Codes of practice on ethical international recruitment or similar instruments are beginning to be introduced at both national and international levels to protect the health systems of vulnerable countries. This study was designed to review the potential impact of existing instruments. [from executive summary]

This presentation was part of the "Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health" conference. It defines ethical recruitment and outlines the 2003 Commonwealth Code of Practice for International Recruitment of Health Workers including the underlying principles and complementary policy measures.

This report calls for provincial governments to take a closer look at the way they hire doctors, nurses and other health professionals from developing countries. Canada has always relied on newcomers to help deal with shortages in this field, but increasingly these professionals are coming from developing countries, especially from Africa and Asia, which have staffing shortages and critical health problems of their own. The report, The Ethical Recruitment of Internationally Educated Health Professionals: Lessons from Abroad and Options for Canada, looks at how other countries are handling the issue, examines the views of key players and outlines some first steps for Canada's provinces to begin the process of developing a code of practice or series of guidelines. [publisher's description]

This presentation was part of the "Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health" conference. It discusses the problems of international recruitement, the motivation to emigrate, expectations and the experiences of migrating health workers. [from author's description]

The availability of medical human resource supply is a growing concern for rural and remote communities in many countries. In the last decade, various telehealth experiences in Canada have highlighted the potential impact of this technology on professional practice. The purpose of this study was to explore physicians' and managers' perceptions regarding the potential of telehealth to support recruitment and retention of physicians in remote and rural regions. [abstract]

This report is the result of a two-year project. The aim of the project was to examine the crucial issue of nursing shortages and identify priority areas for intervention. Five priority areas of intervention for ICN and nursing were identified: Macroeconomic and health sector funding policies; Workforce policy and planning, including regulation; Positive practice environments and organisational performance; Recruitment and retention, addressing in-country maldistribution, and out-migration; and Nursing leadership.

Against the backdrop of growing concern about shortages of health personnel, the report focuses on one of the most critical components of the workforce – nurses. Nurses are the "front line" staff in most health systems, and their contribution is recognised as essential to meeting these development goals and delivering safe and effective care. In presenting a global overview, the paper reports on key trends, main challenges and potential solutions. The emphasis is on breadth of coverage, but specific nursing workforce issues in different countries are highlighted to illustrate the main challenges facing those responsible for developing and implementing policies on the nursing workforce. The report presents a snapshot of a dynamic and challenging situation worldwide. [from executive summary]

This paper examines the recent significant growth in international recruitment of qualified nurses to the United Kingdom. The paper examines trends in recruitment using data from the UK professional register of nurses, and discusses the reasons why employers recruit internationally, and why nurses are internationally mobile. [from abstract]

There have been reported shortages in both the regulated and unregulated workforce in New Zealand, in particular of medical practitioners, nurses in primary care, mental health professionals, allied and primary health professionals, M?ori and Pacific practitioners, and support workers. There is also an ongoing issue of a maldistribution of workers between rural and urban locations. In the future, the constraints on labour supply in New Zealand will necessitate a much greater focus on growing the health workforce and improving the performance and productivity of the available workforce. The area in which there has been the most consistent investment in workforce development since the 1990s is mental health.

While publications like the World Health Report have described general approaches that can be taken to improve the human resources for health (HRH) situation at the country level, there is a relative paucity of more detailed documentation that describes promising practices that would be useful to HRH leaders and practitioners. As a result, USAID's Africa Bureau commissioned a study to identify and document promising practices in a way that takes into account the context of the practice, describes lessons learned and puts forth potential implications for replication in other countries. The intent of the promising practices study is to "serve as a practical and much needed resource for governments, partners and donors in promulgating policies and approaches that have successfully mitigated the negative effects of the health workforce crisis." After consultation within USAID, it was decided that the study would focus on promising practices in four African countries: task shifting in Ghana and Uganda, improving retention in Malawi, and increasing recruitment and rapid deployment in Namibia.

This toolkit includes a collection of HRM resources and links assembled for the Global Health 2005 conference. Most of the resources are in Microsoft Word format and provide guidance on how to develop a variety of HRM documents or processes. Topics covered include supervision, hiring and recruitment, HR policies, and HIV Workplace Programs and training. [publisher's description]

In response to the under-representation of female peer educators in the Geração BIZ Program (GBP), an adolescent sexual and reproductive health program in Mozambique, an operational research study was used to test new strategies for improving recruitment, participation, and retention of female peer educators. The study tested an intervention model to increase the involvement and performance of girls in the GBP. The study started with the hypothesis that a protocol addressing young women’s needs for comfort and security, skills acquisition, support, and mentoring would improve their recruitment, retention, and effective performance in the program.

This presentation was part of the International Conference on Global Health session, "Answering the Call: Innovations in Human Resources by African Faith-Based Organizations." It introduces the Christian Health Association of Malawi and talks about the organizations effort in HR, recruitement strategies - including the impact and challenges of their strategy.

This paper describes the practice of international recruitment of Indian nurses in the model of a business process outsourcing of comprehensive training-cum-recruitment-cum-placement for popular destinations like the United Kingdom and United States through an agency system that has acquired growing intensity in India. [from abstract]

Whilst the issue of international migration of health workers is sometimes presented as a one-way linear 'brain drain,' the dynamics of international mobility, migration and recruitment of health workers are complex. Against this complex backdrop, the main objectives of this paper, drawing from the terms of reference, are: to examine trends in the inflow of health workers to the UK; to examine the methods used in the international recruitment of health workers to the UK; to report on the Department of Health Code of Practice; to provide case studies in the impact of outflow of health workers from developed countries (Ghana and Barbados); and to discuss the international policy context of health workers recruitment and migration and identify current knowledge gaps for future research.

This article synthesizes information about nurse migration into and out of the United Kingdom in the period to 2005, and assesses policy implications. [from abstract]

This paper assesses the reasons for recent growth in recruitment of registered nurses from other countries to the United Kingdom (UK). It aims to examine trends in inward recruitment of nurses to the UK, assess the impact of free mobility of registered nurses in the European Union from a UK perspective, examine the impact of the introduction of ethical guidelines on international recruitment of nurses to the UK, and explore the reasons why registered nurses are internationally mobile. [from introduction]

The main objectives of this paper are to report on the country and demographic profile, motivations, experiences and career plans of recently recruited international nurses working in London, and to give a detailed insight into why they have come to the UK, and what are their future intentions. In order to put these findings in context, the paper also outlines the overall trends in numbers of nurses coming to the UK, and examines the policy context in which international recruitment activity has been conducted. [from introduction]

This guidance sets out the key considerations and principles for ensuring both ethical recruitment and employment of internationally recruited nurses. [from author's description]

This report examines key issues in the recruitment and retention of nurses in the UK. The research was conducted because there are currently significant recruitment and retention problems across a number of professions within the NHS, but particularly in nursing and the professions allied to medicine. [from executive summary]

London is more reliant than other parts of England on the international recruitment of health professionals. This raises several questions. How can employers support and develop such a diverse workforce? How can they retain hard-won international health care staff in the face of increasing international competition? And is it ethical to recruit workers from developing countries experiencing their own shortages? This research summary profiles the capital’s international health care workforce for the first time, with case studies detailing the experiences of three London NHS trusts. It is the first publication of a wider programme of work on the international recruitment of health workers to the capital. [publisher's description]

This presentation was part of the Planning, Developing and Supporting the Health Workforce: Human Resources for Health Action Workshop. It briefly discusses the background and some issues for consideration about Malawi's plan to retain and recruit health workers.
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Shortages of skilled health workers occur in most countries in the world, and most significantly in countries where education levels are relatively high. Migration has tended to be at some cost to relatively poor countries where the costs of production are considerable and losses are not compensated. The costs of global mobility are thus unevenly borne by the poorer source countries and the benefits are concentrated in the recipient countries. Since migration cannot be ended, and source countries have only limited scope for substantial policy change that will improve the number and status of health workers in the home countries, the onus has increasingly shifted towards the role of recipient countries in ensuring that, if migration is to continue, then it be more equitable and that there be adequate compensation for losses incurred in source countries.