Watch back: webinar on missing pieces of health worker mobility data in Europe

The international mobility of health workers in Europe can enhance their career prospects and working conditions, and present solutions to health worker shortages in some countries. However, the geographical maldistribution of health workers between European ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ countries is one of the risks that come with this international mobility. Data collection and monitoring of this mobility is therefore essential to understand what is happening. What are the missing pieces in this data? On 13 June we discussed this question during our Pillars of Health webinar. The recording is now available on our YouTube.

We presented the key findings of our cross-country analysis report on health worker mobility data (2010-2022). This was followed by an engaging and detailed discussion with our two panelists about health worker mobility data and related challenges and gaps.

Presentation by:
Marlies Visser – Researcher at the Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam.

Panelists:

• Mr. Gaetan Lafortune – Senior Economist in the OECD Health Division.
• Prof. Ellen Kuhlmann – President of the EUPHA section Health Workforce Research and Professor (Interim) of Health and Health Systems at the University of Siegen, Germany.

Missing pieces: a closer look into healthcare workers and their motivations

Mr. Gaetan Lafortune reflected on the data collected and progress made through the annual OECD/ Eurostat/WHO-Europe Joint Questionnaire on health workforce migration and highlighted key progress and policy responses:

• The annual OECD/Eurostat/WHO-Europe Joint Questionnaire on foreign-trained health workers has made progress in collecting data and monitoring emigration through immigration data. However, some countries do not provide this kind of data, posing challenges to comprehensive analysis.
• Three policy responses were highlighted to mitigate negative consequences of health workforce migration: avoiding active recruitment in countries with severe shortages based on ethical recruitment principles, promoting mutually beneficial bilateral agreements, and addressing both pull and push factors of migration.

Prof. Ellen Kuhlmann reflected on the future visions for data collection on health workforce migration as well as implications for policy:

• She highlighted the need to expand our focus beyond medical doctors and nurses and include other types of healthcare providers, such as carers, as they form a significant group, and our understanding of their mobility patterns is limited.
• Qualitative research, such as their study on Romanian doctors in Germany, provides valuable insights into individual motivations and mobility patterns of healthcare workers, complementing quantitative databases.
• In this study they identified different mobility types from individual healthcare worker perspectives, including a group of “mobile citizens” motivated to pursue opportunities throughout Europe, a group with an open mindset always willing to explore new options (based on assertions like ‘the door is always open’, ‘one suitcase is always packed’ or ‘I am happy, but..’) and smaller groups desiring to return to countries of origin or stay in destination countries. Identifying these groups and highlighting motivations can be valuable for future policy making as a large portion of migrant health care professionals may actually be open to exchange or circular migration.

Resources presented or referenced during the webinar:

• Marlies Visser – Cross-country analysis of health worker mobility across the European Union and neighbouring countries (2010 – 2022).
• Mr. Gaetan Lafortune – Health workforce migration: data issues and policy issues.
• Prof. Ellen Kuhlmann – Migrant healthcare workers during COVID-19: bringing an intersectional health system-related approach into pandemic protection. A German case study, medRxiv 2023.
• Prof. Ellen Kuhlmann – Migrant healthcare workers’ experiences and mobility patterns in a global health crisis: a qualitative study with Romania physicians working in Germany, medRxiv 2023.