Medeniyet Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Turkey is positioned in the international community as a country receiving and sending immigrants. Brain drain has always been a topical issue among Turkey's migrations, but in recent years, it has been discussed mostly in the health sector. In 2019, due to the Covid-19 pandemic that emerged in China and spread around the world, a large number of physicians migrated abroad due to increasing workload and challenging working conditions. Many physicians migrate abroad due to problems such as violence against health workers, long shift hours, poor working conditions, lack of respect for physicians, and low wages. It has been observed that the developments that negatively affect the working conditions of physicians affect the future plans of not only physicians but also prospective physicians who continue their medical education and it is predicted that they may take the migration of physicians as an example. This prediction raised the question of whether migration abroad has a place in the future plans of prospective physicians. This study researches the tendency of prospective physicians in Turkey to migrate based on Lee's push-pull theory. The aim of this study is to determine whether physician candidates have a tendency to migrate abroad and the push-pull reasons for possible migration. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the participation of Year-IV, V and VI students of Istanbul Medipol University medical schools and the survey data were analysed using Microsoft Excel. It is revealed that almost half of the participants had a tendency to work abroad and the tendency to migrate is more dominant in male participants than in female participants. According to the results of the survey, the main push factors related to the country of origin are the violence that physicians are exposed to, poor working conditions and the decreasing prestige of physicians. Attractive factors related to potential destination countries are favourable and humane working conditions, better living standards and adequate wages.