Operations management

Brain drain

Developing country

Payment

Health care

Economics

Emigration

Economic growth

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Finance

Business

Disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Pandemic

Political science

Personal protective equipment

Pathology

Workforce

Allowance (engineering)

Medicine

International Journal for Equity in Health

Over the years, the Nigerian healthcare workforce, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have always been known to emigrate to developed countries to practice. However, the recent dramatic increase in this trend is worrisome. There has been a mass emigration of Nigerian healthcare workers to developed countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the push factors have been found to include the inadequate provision of personal protective equipment, low monthly hazard allowance, and inconsistent payment of COVID-19 inducement allowance on top of worsening insecurity, the pull factors are higher salaries as well as a safe and healthy working environment. We also discuss how healthcare workers can be retained in Nigeria through increment in remunerations and prompt payment of allowances, and how the brain drain can be turned into a brain gain via the use of electronic data collection tools for Nigerian health workers abroad, implementation of the Bhagwati's tax system, and establishment of a global skill partnership with developed countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic and health workforce brain drain in Nigeria