IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v125y2021i4p467-473.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How the organisation of medical work shapes the everyday work experiences underpinning doctor migration trends: The case of Irish-trained emigrant doctors in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Byrne, John-Paul
  • Conway, Edel
  • McDermott, Aoife M.
  • Matthews, Anne
  • Prihodova, Lucia
  • Costello, Richard W.
  • Humphries, Niamh

Abstract

Medical migration is a global phenomenon. In Ireland, hospital doctor emigration has increased significantly in recent years, with Australia a destination of choice. With work and employment conditions cited as a driver of these trends, this article explores how health system differences in the organisation of medical work shape the everyday experiences of hospital doctors which underpin migration decisions. Drawing on 51 semi-structured interviews conducted in July-August 2018 with Irish-trained hospital doctors who had emigrated to work in Australia, the findings highlight doctors’ contrasting experiences of medical work in the Irish and Australian health systems. Key system differences in the organisation of medical work manifested at hospital level and related to medical hierarchy; staffing, support and supervision; and governance and task coordination. Findings indicate that retention of hospital doctors is as much about the quality of the work experience, as it is about the quantity and composition of the workforce. At a time of international competition for medical staff, effective policy for the retention of hospital doctors requires an understanding of the organisation of work within health systems. Crucially, this can create working contexts in which doctors flourish or from which they seek an escape.

Suggested Citation

  • Byrne, John-Paul & Conway, Edel & McDermott, Aoife M. & Matthews, Anne & Prihodova, Lucia & Costello, Richard W. & Humphries, Niamh, 2021. "How the organisation of medical work shapes the everyday work experiences underpinning doctor migration trends: The case of Irish-trained emigrant doctors in Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(4), pages 467-473.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:125:y:2021:i:4:p:467-473
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851021000191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.01.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janus, Katharina & Amelung, Volker Eric & Gaitanides, Michael & Schwartz, Friedrich Wilhelm, 2007. "German physicians "on strike"--Shedding light on the roots of physician dissatisfaction," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 357-365, August.
    2. van der Pol, Marjon & Scott, Anthony & Irvine, Alastair, 2019. "The migration of UK trained GPs to Australia: Does risk attitude matter?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(11), pages 1093-1099.
    3. Gacevic, Marijana & Santric Milicevic, Milena & Vasic, Milena & Horozovic, Vesna & Milicevic, Marko & Milic, Natasa, 2018. "The relationship between dual practice, intention to work abroad and job satisfaction: A population-based study in the Serbian public healthcare sector," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(10), pages 1132-1139.
    4. Burke, Sara & Barry, Sarah & Siersbaek, Rikke & Johnston, Bridget & Ní Fhallúin, Maebh & Thomas, Steve, 2018. "Sláintecare – A ten-year plan to achieve universal healthcare in Ireland," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(12), pages 1278-1282.
    5. Bidwell, Posy & Humphries, Niamh & Dicker, Patrick & Thomas, Steve & Normand, Charles & Brugha, Ruairí, 2013. "The national and international implications of a decade of doctor migration in the Irish context," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 29-38.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Byrne, John-Paul & Humphries, Niamh & McMurray, Robert & Scotter, Cris, 2023. "COVID-19 and healthcare worker mental well-being: Comparative case studies on interventions in six countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Yuanyuan & Nolan, Anne & Smith, James P., 2020. "Free GP care and psychological health: Quasi-experimental evidence from Ireland," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Júlia Varga, 2017. "Out-migration and attrition of physicians and dentists before and after EU accession (2003 and 2011): the case of Hungary," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(9), pages 1079-1093, December.
    3. Halah Ibrahim & Fatema Zain Al Sharif & Karthyayani Priya Satish & Lina Hassen & Satish Chandrasekhar Nair, 2019. "Should I stay or should I go now? The impact of “pull” factors on physician decisions to remain in a destination country," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 1909-1920, October.
    4. Bruen, Carlos & Brugha, Ruairi, 2020. "“We’re not there to protect ourselves, we’re there to talk about workforce planning”: A qualitative study of policy dialogues as a mechanism to inform medical workforce planning," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(7), pages 736-742.
    5. Johnston, Bridget M. & Burke, Sara & Barry, Sarah & Normand, Charles & Ní Fhallúin, Maebh & Thomas, Steve, 2019. "Private health expenditure in Ireland: Assessing the affordability of private financing of health care," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(10), pages 963-969.
    6. Marijana Vukmirovic & Nina Rajovic & Vedrana Pavlovic & Srdjan Masic & Momcilo Mirkovic & Radica Tasic & Simona Randjelovic & Danka Mostic & Igor Velickovic & Emilija Nestorovic & Petar Milcanovic & D, 2020. "The Burnout Syndrome in Medical Academia: Psychometric Properties of the Serbian Version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory—Educators Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-12, August.
    7. McDonnell, Thérèse & Nicholson, Emma & Bury, Gerard & Collins, Claire & Conlon, Ciara & Denny, Kevin & O'Callaghan, Michael & McAuliffe, Eilish, 2022. "Policy of free GP care for children under 6 years: The impact on daytime and out-of-hours general practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    8. Alina Cerasela Avram, 2020. "Use of Auxiliary Documentation Sources in Medical Practice. Impact of the peaceMed Project on the Romanian Medical Community," Research & Education, Weik Press SRL, issue 4, pages 33-55, July.
    9. Cheng-Feng Cheng, 2020. "Revisiting Internal Marketing for the Determinants of Job (Dis)Satisfaction by Using Asymmetric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Kirathimo Muruga & Tatjana Vasiljeva, 2021. "Physicians' Dual Practice: A Theoretical Approach," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2021(5), pages 1-20.
    11. Gamzu, Ronni & Kaidar, Nir & Afek, Arnon & Horev, Tuvia, 2016. "Physician density planning in a public healthcare system: Complexities, threats and opportunities—The case of the Israeli healthcare system," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(8), pages 920-927.
    12. Quinn, Emma & Gusciute, Egle, 2013. "Attracting Highly Qualified and Qualified Third-Country Nationals: Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT240, June.
    13. Adebusola Adebayo & Oluwaseun Oladapo Akinyemi, 2022. "“What Are You Really Doing in This Country?”: Emigration Intentions of Nigerian Doctors and Their Policy Implications for Human Resource for Health Management," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1377-1396, September.
    14. Ann, Kirby & Murphy, Aileen, 2022. "Would universal general practitioner care impact Irish adolescents’ utilisation?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(7), pages 652-660.
    15. Thomas, Steve & Johnston, Bridget & Barry, Sarah & Siersbaek, Rikke & Burke, Sara, 2021. "Sláintecare implementation status in 2020: Limited progress with entitlement expansion," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 277-283.
    16. Kelleher, Dan & Doherty, Edel & O'Neill, Ciaran, 2022. "Examining the transnational preventive healthcare utilisation of a group of Eastern European migrants living full-time in another European state," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(4), pages 318-324.
    17. Burke, Sara & McGettrick, Grainne & Foley, Karen & Manikandan, Manjula & Barry, Sarah, 2020. "The 2019 neuro-rehabilitation implementation framework in Ireland: Challenges for implementation and the implications for people with brain injuries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 225-230.
    18. Ghenu Cristina, 2017. "The workplace satisfaction of Romania’s medical personnel in state and public institutions," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 411-417, July.
    19. Mário Amorim Lopes & Álvaro Almeida & Bernardo Almada-Lobo, 2017. "Physician emigration: should they stay or should they go? A policy analysis," FEP Working Papers 585, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    20. Tummers, L.G. & Van de Walle, Steven, 2012. "Explaining health care professionals’ resistance to implement Diagnosis Related Groups: (No) benefits for society, patients and professionals," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 158-166.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:125:y:2021:i:4:p:467-473. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.