Managing exits from the workforce

Each year, substantial numbers of health workers leave the health workforce, either temporarily or permanently. These exits can provoke shortages if workers who leave are not replaced, and such shortages compromise the delivery and quality of health services (1, 2). Chapter 3 discussed the routes new workers take into the workforce; this chapter examines the other end of the spectrum – the various ways in which workers depart active service. It also suggests ways of managing exits in times of worker shortage as well as in times of surplus, in order to optimize the performance of the health workforce. Finally, it reviews and analyses the factors that influence exits and proposes strategies for managing them.

- Full text [pdf 658kb]

In this chapter

• Ebbs and flows of migration
• Occupational risks to health workers
• Change of occupation or work status
• Retirement
• Conclusion

Figures

- Exit routes from the health workforce [pdf 461kb]
- Health workers’ reasons to migrate in four African countries (Cameroon, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) [pdf 514kb]
- Occupations at risk of violence, Sweden [pdf 513kb]
- Ageing nurses in the United States of America [pdf 526kb]
- Age distribution of doctors [pdf 531kb]

Tables

- Doctors and nurses trained abroad working in OECD countries [pdf 599kb]
- Doctors trained in sub-Saharan Africa working in OECD countries [pdf 636kb]
- Nurses and midwives trained in sub-Saharan Africa working in OECD countries [pdf 739kb]
- Statutory pensionable age [pdf 599kb]

Images

- image 1 [jpg 126kb]