Around 15,000 NHS employees are from the Philippines, the third most represented nation behind the UK and India. The NHS has plans to recruit a further 5,500 overseas nurses because of increasing demand, an ageing workforce and a drop in applications from EU countries.
Anglia Ruskin has been awarded a small grant to carry out research to better understand the motivations and experiences of Filipino staff, which has important policy implications with regard to retention of overseas nurses, the impact that emigration has on the Philippines, and the sustainability of the strategy of recruiting overseas nurses.
The research will examine why nurses decide to work in the NHS, what their expectations are of the service and life in the UK, what their actual experiences of working in the NHS are, and what they plan to do in the future.
Anglia Ruskin’s Dr David Smith, who will lead the study along with colleague Nicola Gillian, said: “With data last year showing 34,000 vacant posts in our NHS, it is clear that overseas recruitment is essential if we want to avoid our health service grinding to a halt.
“Filipinos make up a large percentage of these migrant workers, but little is actually known about the factors that influence their decisions to carry on working in the UK, to return to the Philippines, or to use the NHS as a springboard to a perceived more attractive destination such as the United States.
“This research will help policy-makers better understand the push and pull factors for Filipinos in the NHS and will help guide strategy in the future with regard to retention and recruitment.”
The £5,000 grant, a Sociology of Health and Illness Grant Development Award, will allow Anglia Ruskin to collaborate with Professor Maria Ela Atienza, of the University of the Philippines, and carry out a pilot study.