The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce today publishes a rapid review of the evidence on ethical international recruitment of healthcare workers.

There is a global shortage of healthcare workers and international recruitment is one way in which high income countries have sought to fill gaps in their workforces. However, this has consequences for the health and care systems in countries in which international recruitment potentially creates shortages of staff in the domestic health service as well as possible advantages when such staff return home. The World Health Organization and governments worldwide are calling for strong commitments to ethical approaches to international recruitment. The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce was asked to undertake a rapid review on international recruitment of healthcare workers to see what is happening. This review describes some of the barriers and facilitators to ethical international recruitment.

This publication

Moriarty, J., Manthorpe, J., Lipman, V., Martineau, S., Norrie, C., & Samsi, K. (2022) Rapid review on the ethical international recruitment of healthcare workers, NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King's College London. 

See also

The Unit's follow-on study: International educational partnerships to develop the healthcare workforce

The Unit has published a series of rapid evidence reviews on health and social care workforce topics. The next in the series focuses on skills gaps in social care (review ongoing).