Nigeria healthcare has a massive brain drain problem.

Here are 4 simple (but not necessarily easy) ideas that could lessen its impacts on our health systems.

1. Train more health professionals

We need to accept the simple truth that a good percentage of our health professionals are going to leave. One way to mitigate the impact of clinician emigration is to increase the size of the funnel by training more clinicians across the board. Not all of our clinicians will leave, and even those who do typically need a few years of work experience locally before they can emigrate.

To grow the number of clinicians practicing in Nigeria, we should expand the size of existing medical training programs in universities, help launch new ones targeting disciplines with global demand, and make it easier for foreign-trained clinicians to train and practice in Nigeria. 

2. Task shifting

Despite the exodus, the burden of providing care to millions of Nigerians is still increasing. Yet, the pool of available clinicians to provide that care is dwindling. Therefore, we should look for creative ways to redistribute tasks (where appropriate) from the clinicians we have the fewest of (namely, medical doctors and specialists) to other health workers. For example, some primary care functions can be provided by nurses rather than doctors.  

There is of course a political pushback to this as many disciplines don't want any of their functions delegated to others. Whether we like it or not, task shifting will happen, either as a result of careful planning or just because there isn’t anyone else to do the work. I’d prefer the former option.

3. Develop a pipeline for experienced health professionals in the diaspora to come back

Around the world, there are thousands of experienced and highly-qualified Nigerian clinicians at the top of their fields. Many of these clinicians would love to contribute back to the motherland and many already do in their personal capacities. We should create more formalized programs for highly-qualified Nigerian clinicians in the diaspora to provide care and upskill others within our health systems. 

4. Treat health professionals better

The Nigerian health system really needs to treat its health workers better. In many states, health workers can go unpaid for months at a time and are still expected to show up and give their best at work day in and day out. While Nigerian health systems may not be able to pay the highest salaries, the least we should do is create an enabling work environment for our clinicians and pay their salaries on time while they are still here. 

Treating our health workers better may not prevent clinicians from leaving altogether, but it can extend the amount of time that clinicians spend working in Nigeria by making it easier for them to provide for themselves and their families.