The inter-provincial migration patterns of family physicians in Canada show that some provinces like Newfoundland and Saskatchewan experience persistent net out-migration, while others, including Ontario and British Columbia, are destinations more often than origins of migrants. Governments in provinces exhibiting net out-migration have responded with a number of incentive and recruitment programs. In this study, we investigate the determinants of the stated interprovincial migration intentions of 3,995 rural and urban family physicians in the 2010 wave of the National Physician Survey. We consider a range of physician characteristics, community attributes and working conditions. We find that in the intention to move, higher compensation has a modest effect, while the community characteristics have a consistently important influence. Our results suggest that policy and program designers should acknowledge the critical role of community-level living and working conditions in their family physician recruitment and retention efforts.

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general practice Forecasting Human Migration economics compensation Saskatchewan Newfoundland and Labrador human work environment sex difference middle aged trends statistics and numerical data comparative study general practitioner Humans psychology male Canada female Socioeconomic Factors personnel management socioeconomics Physicians, Family Personnel Turnover Ontario Personnel Selection adult human experiment migration age Sex Factors Age Factors British Columbia Family Practice