Advertising creates 'strong international interest' in doctors' and nurses' roles in Ireland

The survey also looked at where health staff already working in Ireland want to work abroad. File picture

Online advertisements for medical and nursing jobs in Ireland are attracting strong interest from overseas, with doctors' roles drawing the most attention from Pakistan, the UK, and US, while nursing vacancies are most popular with candidates in India, the US, and UK.

New figures from recruitment platform Indeed highlight Ireland's growing reliance on international healthcare workers, while OECD data shows that 43% of doctors and 52% of nurses working in Ireland trained abroad.

The analysis, which examined the impact of healthcare job advertisements between January and June this year, found significant international interest in roles, many of them within the HSE.

“The highest share of inbound clicks on jobs for physicians and surgeons in Ireland came from Pakistan at 20.5% followed by the UK 13.7%, the US 9.8%, India 5.8%, and Spain 5%,” it said.

“For nursing roles, the highest share of inbound clicks originated from India 22.4%, the US 13.8%, the UK 11.7%, Australia 5.6%, and the Philippines 5%.” 

When it looked at personal care roles, the largest proportion of clicks at 14.3% was from the UK, followed by 10.5% from India, 7.9% from Nigeria, 6.6% from the Philippines, and 6.5% from South Africa.

Overall across all jobs, it said: “The highest share of overseas clicks came from the UK 15%, India 11.8%, the US 8.7%, the Philippines 5.2%, and Nigeria 5%.” 

The survey also looked at where health staff already working in Ireland want to work abroad.

The UK accounted for the highest share of clicks on job advertisements at 43.3% followed by the US at 21.3%, Canada at 10.7%, and Australia 7.8%.

Breaking this down by job, it said: “Physicians and surgeons based in Ireland were most likely to click on jobs in the US 25.6%, the UK 21.1%, and the UAE 11.9%.” 

Indeed said 29% of nurses clicked on ads for jobs in America, the UK 26.4%, Australia 14.4%, and the UAE 8.1%.

Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at Indeed, said: “Healthcare recruitment remains a major challenge in Ireland and internationally."

The platform said it sees “strong international interest” in Irish health jobs and from people working in Ireland seeking to work abroad.

“In a global market, attracting healthcare talent is only one part of the challenge," said Mr Kennedy. "There also needs to be a focus on making Ireland an attractive option for those trained here to stay and build their careers long term. 

“As health systems around the world increasingly compete for the same pool of candidates, retention of skilled workers could be just as important as attracting them.”