A Scoping Review of the reasons for and strategies to manage health workforce migration in Iran

Background: Health workforce migration (HWM) is a long-standing and increasing phenomenon in low and middle-income countries. If adequately managed, mobility and migration of health workforce from these countries facing health worker shortages can strengthen their health systems and widen equities. This scoping review aimed to understand the reasons for, and approaches, to managing HWM in Iran that could have potential applications in other contexts.Methods: The inclusion criteria of this scoping review consist of studies reporting HWM in Iran. In November 2023, PubMed, the Web of Science, Scopus, SID, and Magiran were searched. Searches were limited to Persian2and English reports published without a time limitation. We followed the PRISMA protocol for scoping reviews. Data were extracted and charted.Results: Searches identified 5,661 articles. A total of 40 original articles met the inclusion criteria and were included after the screening. Overarching themes related to the review questions were (1) Reasons for health workforce mobility and migration (three themes including Governance, Social domain, and Social scope ), (2) strategies to address HWM at the national level (three themes including Governance-structural strategies, Educational and academic strategies, Individual-social strategies).Conclusion: HWM is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon often driven by a range of push and pull factors at the individual, institutional, community, and policy levels. This research will serve as a foundation for future work aiming to implement interventions to minimize the negative consequences of HWM and promote workforce sustainability in Iran or other developing countries.

A Scoping Review of the reasons for and strategies to manage health workforce migration in Iran Keywords:

Health workforce , Migration , Brain Drain , Iran