GRFDT

Migration of healthcare professionals is not a new phenomenon. The history of nurses travelling to colonies has been replaced by migration of nurses from colonial countries to developed regions of the world. Indian nurses by their enhanced knowledge, skill and professional conduct transformed themselves into Global nurses. These global Indian nurses are moving to different parts of the developed regions not only to overcome their shortages but also to provide them with skilled, professionally qualified and well trained human resources. Indian nurses are opting to move overseas not only due to lack of opportunities at home but also due to their desire to live overseas. Punjab, one of the top most states in the country with regard to emigration (particularly led by men), is more recently emerging as an important state witnessing substantial emigration of prospective female nurses. It is in this context that the demand for nursing education, with a resultant dramatic proliferation of nursing institutes in the state, worked as a promising route to emigrate to developed countries including Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and United States of America. The present paper seeks to examine the extent to which internationalization of nursing education in Punjab has taken place so as to make it comparable with high standards of health professionals maintained by the developed countries where the need for such nurses is large and immediate. This may also help in understanding how nursing students are allured by lucrative foreign-based nursing career. Both qualitative and quantitative sets of data have been collected through surveys, interviews and focus groups. The present paper may thus throw light on how migratory options provided by nursing profession are deeply intertwined with aspirations to settle abroad.