ArticleBMC medical education2025
The anatomy of a decision: exploring the push, pull, and personal factors of emigration intent among Turkish medical students.
Article in BMC medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Healthcare professionals on the move: understanding the drivers of migration from Türkiye - a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe migration intentions of medical students, often referred to as “brain drain,” pose a significant challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. This study aims to investigate the motivations for emigration, career preferences, and preparatory actions among medical students in Türkiye, a country experiencing significant physician outflow.
methodsA cross-sectional online survey was distributed to medical students across Türkiye. The final sample included 1134 participants from 20 different medical faculties. Data were collected on demographics, motivations for studying medicine, specialty preferences, language proficiency, international experience, and intentions and preparations for working abroad or domestically.
resultsMotivations for studying medicine and specialty preferences differed significantly by gender. Female students were more driven by altruism and preferred nonsurgical specialties, whereas male students prioritized financial prospects, prestige, and surgical fields. The key predictors for intending to work abroad included higher parental education, advanced foreign language proficiency (especially English), and prior international experience. A third of the students (33%) expressed a desire to work abroad after graduation, with Germany, the UK, and the US being the top destinations. The primary push factors for emigration were demanding working conditions (70.8%), violence against healthcare professionals (64.1%), and systemic problems within the healthcare system (55.8%). A striking finding was 74.2% of the students who planned to stay in Türkiye were also making preparations to leave, indicating a deep-seated lack of confidence in the domestic healthcare environment.
conclusionA significant proportion of Turkish medical students intend to practice abroad, driven primarily by push factors related to working conditions and safety. The widespread preparatory activities, even among those stating an intention to stay, suggest that brain drain is a tangible risk. Retaining this future physician workforce requires urgent, systemic interventions addressing working conditions, safety from violence, and career opportunities, particularly in research and academic medicine.
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.