Features OpiniOn Nurses’ exodus

EVEN before the COVID pandemic, the global demand for nurses had already been high. Advanced economies could dangle high salaries and other attractive incentives to recruit nurses from other countries. Global health experts warned that lower-income states could not match such remunerations and benefits, and were hard-pressed to address the loss of their health professionals.

As early as 2010, member states of the World Health Organization, worried about this trend, had adopted a Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. Among other things, the code urged wealthy countries to recruit health professionals through bilateral agreements, in consultation with the health department in the workers’ country of origin.