Care Drain
Care Drain (spelling in German also Care-Drain , English care drain , literally care-outflow in the sense of nursing loss or doctor's loss ) is a special form of brain drain , in which medical professionals leave their country of origin. This can result in economic but also humanitarian losses for the affected country. The decisive factors are usually poor working conditions, health risks and pull factors in the recruiting countries such as higher wages, better working conditions and a higher technical standard. Especially developing countriesand crisis areas as well as poorer rural regions experience a lack of the necessary qualified nursing staff (cf. nursing emergency , shortage of doctors ), which is also known as the “ care gap ”. The care drain does not necessarily result in a care gain in the target area. While the target regions can meet their increasing demand for qualified nursing staff, which is induced by advancing medical progress and demographic change, the regions concerned lose at least the costs invested in the training of their specialist staff.
The Filipino nurses employed by the thousands in the USA are exemplary of a care drain . Most of them are trained doctors (brain drain and care drain) or highly trained nurses who prefer to work underqualified because they see no perspective in the country of origin. The USA recorded both a brain gain and a care gain.
In the long term, labor migration can also have positive effects, such as remittances back to the home country . Conversely, the positive effects that arise in the destination country as a result of the immigration of qualified people are referred to as brain gain - in the field of nursing, sometimes also referred to as care gain (English-speaking, literally care gain ).
Migration losses
The emigration and poaching of medical specialists result in considerable losses for the affected state.
Loss of investment in education: The loss of highly skilled workers is particularly problematic for developing countries , which have great difficulty in raising the high level of investment in education. In particular, economic development strategies that rely on high technology and knowledge-intensive work are severely undermined by targeted enticement and migration of medical professionals.
Loss of qualified teaching staff: The opportunities for academic teaching are also limited by the emigration of highly qualified workers. The chances of establishing a research location are severely limited.
Basic medical care: Crisis regions in particular suffer from an exodus of medical specialists. The medical infrastructure is severely impaired and unqualified professionals have to fill the empty spaces. This degrades the quality of the national health system, reducing the average productivity of workers as a whole. The national economies are thus severely affected.
Web links
- Kimberly Hamilton, Jennifer Yau: The Global Tug-of-War for Health Care Workers . Migration Policy Institute, 2004 ( www.migrationinformation.org ).