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 Home Campaigns Workers Rights are Human Rights Resources
Global Nursing Industry Comparative
Globalisation not only affects the trade of manufactured goods, but also has implications for the movement of people and professionals. Like all workers, healthcare professionals in developing countries seek fair pay and opportunities for themselves and their families. Nurses in the healthcare industry are particularly affected by the often limited opportunities for employment, promotion and good pay in their home countries. In many developing countries, government spending on health is abysmally low due to poor development priorities (eg, the Burma military junta spends 2.7% of their budget on health and 40% on the military) but also due to the requirement to cut government spending (often health and education) as demanded by the International Monetary Fund's Structural Adjustment Programs for indebted countries. With both low wages and few available jobs at home, many Nurses migrate to industrialized countries to seek work. In a world of increased mobility and globalisation, this has led to a "brain drain", as nurses both seek out and are recruited for positions outside their home countries. Nursing Brain Drain Across the developing countries of the global south, migration of qualified nursing professionals has become a major concern. Hospitals and clinics in industrialised countries such as the UK, Australia, and the USA face major nurse shortages as patient loads increase and local nurses become more and more dissatisfied with relatively low pay. Nonetheless, an average nurse in Australia makes far more than an average nurse in developing countries throughout Asia and the Pacific. Average Yearly Incomes in Nursing (USD, from 2000)
While nurses in Australia have the right and the ability to organize into unions and other informal groups to demand and bargain for better pay, benefits, and working conditions, nurses in countries such as Cambodia, China, India, and the Philippines face pressure and sometimes persecution for their involvement in trade unions. As more and more nurses leave the developing world for higher paying jobs in OECD countries, their home countries feel the loss. According to the British Medical Journal, Africa faces the most health problems and the highest rate of emigration of healthcare professionals. The UN estimates that each migrating African health professional represents a loss of $184,000 to Africa. South African medical schools report that one third to one half of their graduates emigrate to the developed world immediately after graduation. Developing countries foot the bill for the training of healthcare professionals, through heavy government subsidies, yet do not reap the benefits of their service. Though nurses and other healthcare workers have the right to seek out the best opportunities for themselves, the migration of medical professionals from developing countries worsens the already depleted healthcare resources in poor countries, which in turn widens the gap in health inequities worldwide. The loss of nurses has been the most extreme among migrating health professionals. More than 150,000 Filipino nurses and 18,000 Zimbabwean nurses work abroad. The UK estimates that 13% of its nurses are born and educated overseas; in London 47% of the nursing workforce is foreign. In 2001, Britain recruited 2,114 nurses from South Africa, 994 from India, 473 from Zimbabwe, 207 from Pakistan, and 195 from Ghana . The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in 2002 that globalisation and the lure of better job markets in countries such as Australia, the UK and the USA could seriously damage health systems in poorer countries.
"If the world's public health community does not correct this trend, the ability of many health systems to function will be seriously jeopardized", said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland. If you were a professional nurse in a developing country, what could you afford on your salary? How long would you need to work to afford some basic food items? In Manila, Philippines, you'd work
In Phnom Penh, Cambodia you'd work
In Colombo, Sri Lanka you'd work
Contact Details Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA Ph: (02) 9264 9343 Fax: (02) 9261 1118 office@apheda.org.au Workers Rights are Human Rights Resources
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