The international migration of Indian nurses

Aim: To identify the factors responsible for the international migration of Indian nurses. Methods: The paper is based on the responses of 448 nurse practitioners, nurse educators and nurse administrators to a questionnaire administered to them in December 2004-January 2005. Key factors were identified by the analysis of contingency tables. Discussion: Apart from economic factors, dissatisfaction with working conditions and unhappiness with prevalent social attitudes towards nurses were identified as being of crucial importance for the international migration of Indian nurses. It was found that nurses working in the private sector and from some linguistic and religious groups were particularly prone to migration. Nurses working in the government sector seemed to be more worried about being unable to adjust to working conditions abroad, and therefore less keen to migrate. The fact that they enjoyed better pay scales, a more relaxed work atmosphere and more facilities may have also played a part here. What seemed to be vital to the decision to migrate for a large number of government sector nurses belonging to the so-called 'Forward' and 'Middle' Castes was that they were being crowded out of promotional avenues as a result of the government's policy of Reservations in Promotions for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Conclusion: Health policy-makers in India need to take a serious look at the growing migration of nurses to foreign countries. While such migration leads to inflow of foreign exchange, it also implies the loss of medical personnel vital for the fulfilment of national goals.