To Remain, Migrate Abroad or Resettle: An Exploratory Study of Pakistani Physicians' Career Decisions

Abstract

The recruitment, retention and migration of highly skilled health professionals is of growing global concern because of its impact on health systems in both developing and developed countries. These global changes in the health workforce include physicians moving from rural to urban areas within a country or from one country to another. Pakistan has the leading number of physicians working in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia even though it faces a shortage of physicians. The reasons have not been identified and evaluated in-depth within the Pakistani context. To date much of the available health workforce research in South Asia is based on quantitative techniques, with far fewer studies using qualitative methodologies to explore the health workforce. This is one of the first studies in South Asia, and especially in Pakistan, to use a qualitative research design to study the physician workforce. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of Pakistani physicians regarding their career decision to remain in their country, migrate abroad or resettle back into their country after working abroad for some time.