Migration intentions of nurses and nursing students from Slovakia: A study on drivers

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Nurses are an essential resource in health systems. However, the shortage of skilled nursing workforce is a global phenomenon with negative consequences – many factors, including individual, occupational, and socio-political aspects, influence nurse migration. Thus, the aim is to explore the migration intentions of nurses and nursing students, forcing them to seek work abroad.
An online survey was conducted among nurses and nursing students as part of the APVV and VEGA projects. The questionnaire focused on the essential characteristics of the respondents and staffing approaches in hospitals in Slovakia. Data were obtained from a survey of 752 hospital nurses and 423 university nursing students. The statistical analysis consisted of factor and correspondence analysis. The findings highlight the factors influencing the migratory sentiments of nursing students and working hospital nurses. They are organization of work, staff remuneration, employee benefits, workroom equipment, shortage of nurses, bureaucracy, communication and relations with colleagues, superiors, and patients, training and career development, material and spatial security, instrumentation, digitization of work, the prestige of the medical profession, and current situation in the Slovak Republic.
The paper identifies and evaluates groups of push factors of migration intentions – satisfaction/dissatisfaction with hospital working conditions. The results of the factor analysis indicate that such factors as material and spatial security, communication and relations with colleagues, work organization, lack of personnel, bureaucracy, the prestige of the medical profession, and the current situation in Slovakia affect their working conditions and pleasure.

Acknowledgment
This study is elaborated within the framework of the projects APVV č. 19-0579 “Personnel management processes setup in hospitals and its impact on the migration of physicians and nurses to work abroad” and VEGA č. 1/0691/22 “Economic aspects of emigration of university graduates in health care departments in the context of the sustainability of staffing of health care facilities in the Slovak Republic.”

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    • Figure 1. Correspondence map to age and migration analysis – nurses
    • Figure 2. Correspondence map to education and reflections on migration analysis – nurses
    • Figure 3. Correspondence map to education and of migration considerations – nursing students
    • Figure 4. Correspondence map to satisfaction with the study and reflection on migration – nursing students
    • Table 1. Relative frequencies of nurses’ response: Migration considerations and age
    • Table 2. Relative frequencies of nurses’ responses: Migration considerations and educational attainment
    • Table 3. Relative frequencies of nurses’ responses: Migration considerations and completed specialization
    • Table 4. Relative frequencies of nursing students’ responses: Migration considerations and gender
    • Table 5. Relative frequencies of nursing students’ responses: Migration considerations and study year
    • Table 6. Relative frequencies of nursing students’ responses: Migration considerations and study satisfaction
    • Table 7. Eigenvalues of the sample correlation matrix (R) – nurses
    • Table 8. Factor loadings for the factor model of nurses’ satisfaction with working conditions
    • Table 9. Eigenvalues of the sample correlation matrix (R) – nursing students
    • Table 10. Factor loadings for the factor model of nursing students’ satisfaction with working conditions
    • Data curation
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Formal Analysis
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Project administration
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Resources
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Validation
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Visualization
      Veronika Mozolová
    • Writing – original draft
      Veronika Mozolová, Magdaléna Tupá
    • Writing – review & editing
      Veronika Mozolová, Magdaléna Tupá
    • Conceptualization
      Magdaléna Tupá
    • Investigation
      Magdaléna Tupá
    • Methodology
      Magdaléna Tupá
    • Software
      Magdaléna Tupá
    • Supervision
      Magdaléna Tupá