ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2019
Global Brain Drain: How Can the Maslow Theory of Motivation Improve Our Understanding of Physician Migration?
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Drivers of health workers' migration, intention to migrate and non-migration from low/middle-income countries, 1970-2022: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2023Pooled it
- Building OHNS Capacity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Insights From Global Training Programs.Laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology · 2026Article
- Healthcare professionals' migration intentions in Türkiye: a qualitative study on implications for community health and health system sustainability.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The role of calling in medical students' migration intention.Human resources for health · 2026Article
- African solutions for African medical education: the strategic establishment of the Consortium of Medical Schools in Africa.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Investigating the extent and causes of immigration tendency among medical graduates of Jundishapur university of medical sciences, Ahvaz.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Seeking greener pastures: attitudes towards brain drain among turkish medical students.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Navigating brain drain: understanding public discourse on legislation to retain medical professionals in Nigeria.Globalization and health · 2024Article
- Motivations of Israeli physicians to return, or not, to Israel after their fellowship abroad.Israel journal of health policy research · 2024Article
- Factors Affecting Brain Drain and a Solution to Reduce it in Iran's Health System: A Qualitative Study.Archives of Iranian medicine · 2024Article
- Medical schools in Africa: seeing momentum.BMJ global health · 2024Article
- Self-actualization and B-values: Development and validation of two instruments in the Brazilian context.PloS one · 2024Article
- Determinants for the humanitarian workforce in migrant health at the US-Mexico border: optimizing learning from health professionals in Matamoros and Reynosa, Mexico.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The factors that are associated with nurse immigration in lower- and middle-income countries: An integrative review.Nursing open · 2023Review
- Article
- Analysis of influencing factors of job demands of healthcare workers working in mobile cabin hospitals in China.Nursing open · 2023Article
- Home-Based Intelligent Exercise System for Seniors' Healthcare: The Example of Golf Croquet.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Draining the specialized nursing brains, the emigration paradigm of Ghana: A cross-sectional study.Nursing open · 2023Article
- On leaving: Coloniality and physician migration in Puerto Rico.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Navigating the Health Professional Migration Tsunami in the Era of COVID-19 and Globalization: A Call to Action for a Collective and Coordinated Response from Government and Non-Government Organizations.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The migration of physicians from low-resource to high-resource settings is a prevalent global phenomenon that is insufficiently understood. Most low-income countries are severely understaffed with physicians, and the emigration of the already limited number of physicians to other countries can significantly reduce access to healthcare in the source country. Despite a growing interest in global capacity building in these countries by academic and non-governmental organizations in high-income countries, efforts to stem physician migration have been mostly unsuccessful. The authors reviewed the current literature for the motivational factors leading to physician migration in the context of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. Our study found that financial safety needs were major drivers of physician emigration. However, factors related to self-actualization such as the desire for professional development through training opportunities and research, were also major contributors. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of physician motivations to emigrate from low-resource countries. Maslow's Theory of Motivation may provide a useful framework for future studies evaluating the concerns of physicians in low-income countries and as a guide to incentivize retention.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.