Migration of mental health professionals is an important phenomenon influencing mental health services of host and donor countries. Data on medical migration in Europe is very limited, particularly in the field of young doctors and psychiatry. To research this hot topic, the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) conducted the EFPT Brain Drain Survey.

To identify the impact of previous short-term mobility on international migration and to understand characteristics, patterns and reasons of migration.

In this cross-sectional European multicentre study, data were collected from 2281 psychiatric trainees across 33 countries. All participants answered to the EFPT Brain Drain Survey reporting their attitudes and experiences on migration.

Two-thirds of the trainees had not had a short-mobility experience in their lifetime, but those that went abroad were satisfied with their experiences, reporting that these influenced their attitude towards migration positively. However, the majority of the trainees had not had a migratory experience of more than 1 year. Flows showed that Switzerland and United Kingdom have the greatest number of immigrant trainees, whereas Germany and Greece have the greatest number of trainees leaving. ‘'Pull factors'’ were mostly academic and personal reasons, whereas ‘'push factors'’ were mainly: academic and financial reasons. Trainees that wanted to leave the country were significantly more dissatisfied with their income.

The majority of the trainees has considered leaving the country they currently lived in, but a lower percentage has taken steps towards migration.

Although psychoactive substance use disorders (PSUD) belong to the domain of mental health, their management varies greatly among European countries. Furthermore, both the role of psychiatrists and trainees in the treatment of PSUD is not the same for each European country.

Among the context of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT), the PSUD Working Group has developed a survey that has been spread out between the 15th of august 2015 and 15th of October 2016, at the aim of gathering information about the training in PSUD in Europe, both from Child and Adolescent, and General Adult Psychiatric (CAP and GAP) trainees.

The survey investigated, at European level, the organisation of the PSUD training, trainees satisfaction, attitudes towards people who use psychoactive substances, management of pharmacologic and involvement in common clinical situations.

A 70-items questionnaire regarding the aforementioned objectives was developed, and shared trough an online data-collecting system among European CAP and GAP trainees, with 40 trainees per country filling the survey in at least 25 countries. One national coordinator per country facilitated the delivering of the survey.

A total of 1250 surveys were filled from more than 25 European countries.

Data from the survey will be promptly analysed.

The survey will be the first to explore European psychiatric trainees attitudes and practices about PSUD. Findings from this independent survey may serve in understanding the needs of trainees in the field of substance misuse psychiatry.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

There is a shortage of psychiatrists worldwide. Within Europe, psychiatric trainees can move between countries, which increases the problem in some countries and alleviates it in others. However, little is known about the reasons psychiatric trainees move to another country.

Survey of psychiatric trainees in 33 European countries, exploring how frequently psychiatric trainees have migrated or want to migrate, their reasons to stay and leave the country, and the countries where they come from and where they move to. A 61-item self-report questionnaire was developed, covering questions about their demographics, experiences of short-term mobility (from 3 months up to 1 year), experiences of long-term migration (of more than 1 year) and their attitudes towards migration.

A total of 2281 psychiatric trainees in Europe participated in the survey, of which 72.0% have ‘ever’ considered to move to a different country in their future, 53.5% were considering it ‘now’, at the time of the survey, and 13.3% had already moved country. For these immigrant trainees, academic was the main reason they gave to move from their country of origin. For all trainees, the overall main reason for which they would leave was financial (34.4%), especially in those with lower (<500€) incomes (58.1%), whereas in those with higher (>2500€) incomes, personal reasons were paramount (44.5%).

A high number of psychiatric trainees considered moving to another country, and their motivation largely reflects the substantial salary differences. These findings suggest tackling financial conditions and academic opportunities.

Workforce migration of mental health professionals seems to have a significant impact on mental health services, both in the donor and host countries. Nevertheless, information on migration in junior doctors within Europe is very limited. Therefore, the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) has conducted the Brain Drain Survey.

To identify, in junior doctors training in psychiatry, the impact of international short-term mobility experiences, towards a future workforce migration across countries, exploring its patterns and reasons.

In this cross-sectional international study, data were collected from 2281 psychiatric trainees in 33 countries. All participants answered to the EFPT Brain Drain Survey reporting their attitudes and experiences on mobility and migration.

Only one-third of the trainees had a short-mobility experience in their lifetime, being education the main purpose for these experiences. Interestingly, the main predictors for future migratory tendency were not only the having a income and being dissatisfied with this income, but having a short-mobility experience. In fact, people that had short-mobility experiences were two times more likely to express a migratory tendency. Trainees that went abroad were predominantly satisfied with their experiences, reporting that these influenced their attitudes towards migration, positively.

These findings show that short-term mobility has a positive impact into future long-term migration, increasing its probability.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

It is a well known fact that qualified health professionals generally migrate to high-income, developed regions. Nevertheless, the perceptions of this immigrant skilled health workforce on access to opportunities or feeling discriminated in their host countries, have not yet been explored or adequately addressed.

This work has focused on the perceptions of immigrant psychiatry trainees in several European countries about their views on having equal access to opportunities as natives or feeling discriminated.

A semi-structured 61-item questionnaire was circulated by National Coordinators in each country and was completed by 2281 psychiatric trainees from 33 European countries between year 2013 and 2014. Data has been analysed using the Software Package for Social Sciences for Windows v. 22.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL).

In these findings, more than one in ten psychiatry trainees across Europe were immigrants, with top host countries being Switzerland, Sweden and UK. Satisfaction with migration and the perception of having equal opportunities as the native trainees varied depending on the host country they migrated to. More than one-third of the trainees felt discriminated, not having the same opportunities as the local colleagues, especially concerning the work opportunities and the academic conditions. Still, nearly two-thirds considered having the same opportunities than natives.

A high number of immigrant psychiatry trainees subjectively feels they do not have the same opportunities as local trainees. Further research about factual and perceived discrimination by immigrant workforce should be done.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Migration of medical professionals has a global impact on healthcare and services, including on mental health. Exploring the reasons for migration and why psychiatric trainees consider to migrate to certain countries is therefore crucial to understand the decision-making process related to migration of psychiatric trainees as well as of future specialists.

The aims of this Brain Drain Survey, was to research which countries most trainees in Europe migrate to (host countries) and for which reasons trainees choose to migrate to these countries (“pull factors”).

In a multicenter, cross-sectional study, data was collected in 33 countries. As part of the survey, all participants responded to a questionnaire exploring trainees’ experiences and attitudes towards migration.

Our results showed that Sweden, Switzerland and the UK were all significant net hosts. The percentage of immigrants varied between these countries. One of the main contributors as a “pull” factor was unsurprisingly, salary. It is notable that all three-host countries were within the highest wage brackets within our survey.

Psychiatric trainees tend to migrate to countries with higher income.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.