Nursing relocation: voluntary nurse migration
Section: Healthcare Management
How to quote
Lapena Estella C et al. Traslados en Enfermería: movilidad voluntaria en clave migratoria. Metas de Enferm sep 2010; 13(7): 62-65
Authors
1Carolina Lapena Estella; 2Silvia Granollers Mercader; 3Eva Orozco Prádanos; 4Anna Muñoz Penalba; 5Roser Pedret Llaberia; 6Blanca R
Position
1Enfermera. Licenciada en Antropología. EAP Sanllehy, Barcelona.2Enfermera. Licenciada en Filología. EAP Sant Just, Sant J
Contact address
Carolina Lapena Estella Rambla Volart, 22-24, 4º, 2ª. 08041 Barcelona.
Contact email: clapena@gencat.cat
Abstract
At the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) the selection of permanent staff members is carried out within a general framework by means of a public examination and subsequent voluntary mobility or relocation which allows a permanently employed statutory professional to relocate to another post, within the same category and specialty, within the portfolio of services of the National Health System (SNS).
The voluntary mobility call does not offer specialised nurse positions, except in the case of midwives, occupational nurses and, in some Autonomous Communities, mental health nurses.
The phenomenon of the voluntary migration of nursing professionals is analysed within the framework of Human Geography/Demography theory, with the aim of determining the structural and group consequences that this flow or migration can have within the health care system.
In the call for voluntary mobility P-2007, 1,043 nurses hoped for relocation, 57,8% worked in the hospital setting and the number of positions offered to nurses in Primary Care (PC) was 215. 73% of these positions were occupied by nurses from PC teams and 27% were filled by nurses working in hospitals.
Relocations to PC, understood as occupational migrations, have: a) positive effects: they produce a decrease in unemployment at the point of origin, increase human capital and provide different and enriching knowledge, with new ideas; and b) negative effects: lack of specific skills, increased work load of expert professionals and a feeling of cultural invasion, in addition to the ageing of the recipient population, contrary to what occurs in other occupational migrations, which are not being sufficiently taken into account when there is a call for voluntary mobility or relocation.
The voluntary mobility call does not offer specialised nurse positions, except in the case of midwives, occupational nurses and, in some Autonomous Communities, mental health nurses.
The phenomenon of the voluntary migration of nursing professionals is analysed within the framework of Human Geography/Demography theory, with the aim of determining the structural and group consequences that this flow or migration can have within the health care system.
In the call for voluntary mobility P-2007, 1,043 nurses hoped for relocation, 57,8% worked in the hospital setting and the number of positions offered to nurses in Primary Care (PC) was 215. 73% of these positions were occupied by nurses from PC teams and 27% were filled by nurses working in hospitals.
Relocations to PC, understood as occupational migrations, have: a) positive effects: they produce a decrease in unemployment at the point of origin, increase human capital and provide different and enriching knowledge, with new ideas; and b) negative effects: lack of specific skills, increased work load of expert professionals and a feeling of cultural invasion, in addition to the ageing of the recipient population, contrary to what occurs in other occupational migrations, which are not being sufficiently taken into account when there is a call for voluntary mobility or relocation.
Keywords:
demography; management; migration; Occupational mobility; Primary Care
Versión en Español
Título:
Traslados en Enfermería: movilidad voluntaria en clave migratoria
