ASSESSMENT OF THE DESIRE TO WORK OVERSEAS AMONG PHYSICIANS WORKING IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Background-Ethiopia is one of the developing countries which have low number of physicians partly due to the professionals’ migration to work elsewhere since long ago. Although some studies try to see the magnitude and patterns of physicians who left the country, no attempt was made to assess the desire to work overseas among physicians working in the country. Objective- To assess the desire to work overseas among physicians working in Addis Ababa government and private hospitals. Methods- Thirteen government and private hospitals in Addis Ababa were selected for the study and the study participants were physicians working in the selected hospitals. A cross-sectional quantitative study design was used for the study. Data were collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaires. Results Out of 278 respondents, 172(61.9%) had desire to work overseas. Marital status (AOR=24.78, CI 1.30, 471.2), shorter duration in marriage (AOR=25.21, CI 1.54, 411.52) and outlook for better working condition (AOR=13.27, CI 1.57, 112.29) showed statistically significant association to desire to work abroad. Conclusion The study found that the level of desire to work overseas among physicians is high and similar to studies done in other countries.