Ireland faces a medical workforce crisis as a result of widespread doctor emigration. The Irish health system response to widespread emigration has been to train more doctors and to recruit internationally. However each year, while 725 doctors graduate, Ireland loses 542 doctors to emigration. This rate of doctor emigration threatens the future of the health system. ‘Any system that haemorrhages talent over the long run will struggle to survive let alone prosper’ (Kapur, 2010).
Ireland’s failure to retain the doctors it trains has resulted in a heavy reliance on internationally trained doctors – accounting for 36% of all doctors and 77% of junior hospital doctors.The Irish health system has focussed on changing the doctors in the system rather than on changing the driver of doctor emigration – their working conditions. Focussing on the hospital workplace, the HDRM project will generate qualitative and quantitative information on motivation and perspectives on retention of hospital doctors in Ireland and those who emigrated. Drawing on the JD-R model of burnout (Demerouti et al. 2001), the project will consider the effect of workplace demands and supports, along with culture and morale, on the medical workforce. The project will generate an evidence informed typology of hospital workplaces which will support employers and medical workforce planners by facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of the hospital workplace and the working conditions needed to promote the retention of a motivated cohort of hospital doctors. A key component of the HDRM project is the generation of actionable findings in relation to doctor retention and motivation based on national and international data. Therefore, the project will involve close collaboration with policy makers, stakeholders and doctors from the outset and will employ knowledge exchange and action research methods to support medical workforce in the Irish context.
