Exploring the Antecedents of Employee Engagement Strategies on Migration Intention of Health Workers in Nigeria: A Conceptual Approach

Health care worker's migration to other countries has both short and long-term effect on the adequate health care delivery of the affected countries. Several contemporary issues are confronting Nigeria health sector like work overload, inadequate training and the high rate of migration intention of Nigeria health workers to developed western nations. Recently, it has been acknowledged that the sector is experiencing a shortage of medical doctors, nurses and midwives. The non-availability of adequate health workforce in any country will undoubtedly lead to negative health outcomes as adequate and qualitative health workforce is sine qua non to a qualitative healthcare delivery. Extant studies in this context mostly analysed factors accountable for the low level of qualitative health care delivery in Nigeria but limited studies proffered mitigating factors in addressing it in human resource context. This study through the review of extant studies identified the antecedents of employee engagement as a strategy that can propitiate Nigeria health workers to have good behavioural dispositions. To this end, this review looks at the relationship between employee engagement and migration intention of health workers. At the end of the review, a model was developed that can be empirically investigated to determine the extent at which the antecedents of employee engagement influences migration intention of health workers in Nigeria.