Filipino 'nursing medics': why are doctors retraining as nurses in the Philippines?

The Philippines has been systematically exporting labour since the 1970s and is currently the number one exporter of nurses and second in doctors. In 1999 a new trend emerged in the Philippines whereby doctors began to retrain as nurses to go abroad, a phenomenon which has subsequently grown in popularity resulting in the creation of several thousand 'nursing medics' each year. Ethnographic research that examined physicians' decision to retrain was conducted in the Philippines for seven weeks. This thesis explores how the interconnection between macro and micro structures currently in...  [+] Show more

The Philippines has been systematically exporting labour since the 1970s and is currently the number one exporter of nurses and second in doctors. In 1999 a new trend emerged in the Philippines whereby doctors began to retrain as nurses to go abroad, a phenomenon which has subsequently grown in popularity resulting in the creation of several thousand 'nursing medics' each year. Ethnographic research that examined physicians' decision to retrain was conducted in the Philippines for seven weeks.

This thesis explores how the interconnection between macro and micro structures currently in operation has played a fundamental role in the construction of 'nursing-medics'. It investigates how international migration trends, 'push' and 'pull' factors, the introduction and professionalisation of nursing, economic and political factors, the Philippine government, and public and private labour recruiting agencies have each played a role in establishing the mechanism that has facilitated the creation of Filipino nursing medics.

Published abstract.