The turnover intentions and intentions to leave the country of foreign-born physicians in Finland: a cross-sectional questionnaire study

BACKGROUND: A physician shortage is a worldwide problem and foreign-born physicians fill in the shortage of physicians in many developed countries. One problem that is associated with the physician shortage is increased physician turnover. Also, regarding foreign-born physicians, migration can be costly. The present study aimed to examine the turnover intentions and intentions to leave the country of foreign-born physicians. We examined how demographics, discrimination, language problems, perceived employment barriers, satisfaction with living in Finland, team climate, job satisfaction and patient-related stress were associated with these factors. METHODS: The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study among 371 foreign-born physicians in Finland that were aged between 26 and 65 (65% women). Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations. RESULTS: Half of the respondents had turnover intentions and 14.5% had considered leaving the country. High satisfaction with living in Finland was associated with a lower likelihood of both turnover intentions and intentions to leave the country. High levels of discrimination and employment barriers were associated with a high likelihood of turnover intentions whereas good team climate was associated with a low likelihood of turnover intentions. High levels of language problems were associated with a high likelihood of intentions to leave the country. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed the importance of satisfaction with living in the host country, the prevention of discrimination and employment barriers, language skills and a good team climate for the retention of foreign-born physicians in their current job and in the host country. Thus, to keep their foreign-born physicians, health care organisations should implement measures to tackle these challenges. Organisations could arrange, for example, diversity training, self-assessment, team reflections, leadership coaching and culturally-specific networks. Moreover, internships associated with the qualification process could be utilised better in order to give a thorough introduction to the host country’s health care environment and the possibilities for learning the language. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4487-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.