Gender issues in mobility of nurses under ASEAN economic community in Thailand | |
| Author | Napaphat Satchanawakul |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GD-13-07 |
| Subject(s) | Women in medicine--Thailand AseanEconomic Community Thaila- nd |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. GD-13-07 |
| Abstract | As the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be officially launched in 2015, the free flow of skilled labor and free(r) flow of investment - the ke y elements for being the single market and production base of the AEC, seem to create attractive options for medical personnel in Thailand. This paper analyzed the possibility of Thai nurses to change their workplace – from rural to urban and from urban to overseas – and the implication of such change to the health services in rural Thailand. Thai nurses suffer from low status. Registered nurses are treated distinctively inferior to other medical professions in terms of working conditions and compensations. Their status further deteriorated in the last 10 years when the government refused to provide new registered nurses status of civil servant. Although the protest by nurses in 2012 made the government to promise improvements, in reality, the situation has not changed. Bad working condition and low status would encourage nurses to seek better jobs outside the province and outside the countries – nurses in the capital might go abroad, while vacancies in cities might be fill by rural nurses. The results of que stionnaire surveys from 565 nurses (350 nurses from rural public hospitals and 215 nurses from private hospitals in Bangkok), the new generation of nurses (25 - 30 years of age) who are working as non - civil servant in rural public hospitals showed interest i n and tend to move out from the provinces to work in private hospitals in Bangkok. They do not aim to move outside country due to their lack of language skill and readiness for working outside the countries. Meanwhile, nurses (25 - 30 years of age) in some w ell - known private hospitals in Bangkok tend to move out to work abroad. However, ASEAN countries seem to be less preferred than Western countries (ex. USA, UK, European countries). Although this does immediately mean that AEC will lead to immediate outflow of nurses, depending on the job offer available in other countries in ASEAN, there is a possibility that nurses in Bangkok will increasingly move out, and rural non - civil servant nurses will take their place. This possibility will leave the most vulnerabl e population in the country to be deprived of health services from adequate number of health personnel. At the same time, from open - ended interviews with some voluntary nurses and key informant interviews, family obligation and/or other community support m ight retain the nurses to stay in the provinces and in the country. Nurses with family to take care of in the rural areas or those who are able to receive support for care work from other people in the community are less likely to move out. However, such s ituation should be understood as their constraint in improving their working condition rather than a favorable condition to retain rural nurses. It is important for the government, as part of its preparation for AEC, to understand the needs of rural nurses so that adequate support and improvement in working condition is provided to allow them to continue working in the rural areas. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. GD-13-07 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Doneys, Philippe;Soparth Pongquan;Yamamoto, Yumiko; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |