Özet:

Aim: Physician migration has a negative impact on health services especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Turkey ranks last among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with the number of physicians per 100,000 inhabitants (217/100,000). It is observed that physicians who are worried about their future in their home countries due to harsh working conditions, professional dissatisfaction, economic difficulties and/or violence against physicians tend to migrate to developed countries for reasons such as improvement of living standards, better working conditions, future of themselves and their children, and career opportunities. In this study, it was aimed to determine the speciality preferences and tendencies towards physician migration of students who are currently attending the first and fifth grades in five different medical faculties. Methods: It is a descriptive epidemiological study. The study group consisted of Term 1 and Term 5 students of Hacettepe, Pamukkale, Bursa Uludağ, Marmara and Kocaeli Universities Faculty of Medicine. No sample was selected from the population, all students were tried to be reached, and an online questionnaire specially prepared for the study, including questions about sociodemographic information, post-graduation plans, preferred speciality branch and reason, and plans to work abroad, was applied to all those who agreed to participate. After obtaining the ethics committee and dean's permission of the relevant faculties, data collection was completed in December 2022. Results: A total of 404 students from 5 medical faculties, including 143 (35.4%) from Hacettepe University, 53 (13.1%) from Pamukkale University, 56 (13.9%) from Bursa Uludağ University, 75 (18.6%) from Marmara University and 77 (19.1%) from Kocaeli University, participated in the study. Approximately half of the participants stated that they chose the profession of medicine "to help people". While 60.3% of the Term 1 students included in the study stated that they had a plan to go abroad, this percentage was 39.7 in Term 5 students (p=0.002). While 70.3% of the participants stated that they knew English at a very-good/good level, the English level of the participants who stated that they had a plan to go abroad was higher than the others (p<0.001). Prior to the date of the study, 22.8% of the participants stated that they had attempted to study abroad and 15% stated that they had attempted to work abroad. Those who had plans to work abroad reported that they wanted to go abroad mostly (75.4%) due to 'concerns about the general situation in the country and anxiety about the future'. This was followed by 'education and career' (72.3%), 'harsh working conditions' (64.3%), 'violence in health' (63.8%) and 'economic reasons' (62.7%). More than half (57.1%) of the participants who planned to work abroad stated that they would consider returning if the conditions that caused them to go abroad improved. Conclusions: The findings obtained for the students of the five faculties indicate that the predictions for the coming years will increase physician migration. The fact that students' plans to work abroad are higher in the younger group compared to the senior group is particularly worrying for the future in terms of planning the physician workforce of the country. As long as students' concerns about the future are not addressed, physician migration will be expected to increase.

Anahtar Kelimeler: