Brain drain: Doctors’ career intentions and associated factors,a questionnaire survey in Pakistan

Objective: to describe pakistani doctors’ career intentions,future practice locations and their satisfaction with work conditions in home country and also,the factors behind leaving and staying in the country. methodology: this cross sectional study was conducted on 132 junior doctors of pof hospital and wah medical college,wah cantt during november-december,2015. the self-administered questionnaire was designed after extensive literature review and was distributed. data was analyzed using spss version 19 and p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. results: majority of the participants intended to seek postgraduate training in different specialties of medical field (81.8%). international careers were anticipated by 27.2% of the participants,and uk,middle east and us was found to be their preferred choices. 72.7% were not satisfied with working conditions in home country. 40.9% reported less likelihood of returning back to pakistan if opportunity is given to go abroad. major factors that stood out as reasons for the intention to emigrate included; doctors being paid a high salary,higher educational opportunities,good working conditions abroad and structured career path. conclusion: low expected monthly salary,stressful working environment and lack of professional growth were the most important reasons of physician dissatisfaction and migration from developing countries to developed ones. © 2016,journal of postgraduate medical institute. all rights reserved.