Abstract:
The Philippines has long suffered from the brain drain of its healthcare professionals now
further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global shortage in healthcare
professionals. To address this, the Philippine government has enacted and proposed various
legislation to restrict healthcare worker migration such as deployment caps, return service
agreements in schools, and the mandatory medical service bill. However, these measures have
proven ineffective thus far and failed to address the problem of healthcare worker migration at its
roots. Given these policies, it becomes imperative to include students, as stakeholders and future
healthcare professionals, as part of the conversation in addressing brain drain.
This paper aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the migration aspirations and
capabilities of health-allied students, their perceptions of migration-restrictive measures such as
those mentioned above, and provide policy recommendations towards encouraging healthcare
worker retention. This was achieved by collecting data from three key informants and the
conduct of four focus group discussions and three interviews of health-allied students from three
universities in NCR and CALABARZON. The results of the data collection yielded four
emergent themes: (1) Migration as a catalyst for perceived socioeconomic growth, (2) the
problems of Philippine underdevelopment, (3) the family as the deciding factor, and (4)
restriction as a band-aid solution to systemic issues. From here, the study was able to provide
recommendations towards better-informed policy for healthcare worker retention that would
contribute towards the achievement of SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth in the field
of health.
