Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries have relaxed immigration policies for Hong Kong people since last year, immigration has become a hot topic in recent years. The Hong Kong Nurses Association recently conducted a survey on the intention and considerations of emigration overseas, nearly half of the respondents said that they are considering or are handling the emigration of overseas performance, of which more than 90% of the political reasons for the emergence of the intention to go. The Nursing Association is concerned that this wave of emigration will lead to a loss of nursing talent in Hong Kong, further aggravating the problem of shortage of public health care nurses.
The Hong Kong Nurses Association sent a physical or online questionnaire to all 30,000 members from Nov. 16 to Nov. 30 last year, and received 684 responses. Respondents covered different ranks of registered nurses, registered nurses and nurse managers, among which 65% were employed by the Hospital Authority and 12% worked in private hospitals. In the survey, nearly 44% of the respondents said they were considering emigrating overseas, and nearly 10% of the respondents said they were going through the process of emigration. Among them, registered nurses, those with 5 to 10 years of experience, and those working in the Hospital Authority have the highest intention to emigrate. Among the respondents who are inclined to emigrate, 63% of them would choose the United Kingdom; followed by Australia, accounting for 53%; other countries in order are Canada, Taiwan and the United States.
Among the respondents who intend to emigrate, 91% said they would consider emigrating for political and social reasons, while 46% and 43% would like to improve their living environment or children’s education. Apart from political factors, reasons such as “poor working environment in hospitals”, “no improvement in salary and benefits” and “nurse-to-patient ratio not reaching one to six” have also increased the desire of nurses to emigrate. Nurse Association Executive Committee member Yuan Wenjin said that there are nurses at the level of chief nursing officer because of political factors such as national security laws in Hong Kong, and hope that their children receive better education, and will soon migrate to Australia.
According to Nurse Association President Yuan Zhi Min, the result reflects that Hong Kong will lose nurses with certain experience, resulting in a shortage of young people in the industry, while the shortage of nurses in Hong Kong’s public health care system to further worsen the problem. He suggested the government to increase nursing training and nursing for the quota, the introduction of half-time employment system, and the introduction of measures to improve the working environment of hospitals to retain nursing talent.
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