Systematic review and meta-synthesis protocol for examining policies mitigating the determinants of African nurses’ and midwives’ migration

Abstract

Background There has been a notable rise in the number of African nurses and midwives migrating to high-income countries despite varying policies and restrictions to promote retention. The need to comprehensively evaluate existing policies addressing the exodus is crucial to future policy formulation and steps in addressing drivers of nurses and midwives brain drain in Africa.Aim To explore the existence of migration policies that address the drivers of nurse and midwives’ migration outside Africa and determine the characteristics and implementation of these policies.Methods The review would be guided by the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of text and non-research evidence. Databases including CINAHL, PubMed, Academic Search Complete via Ebscohost and ISI Web of Science will be searched using a PICOS selection criteria framework. Grey literature would be gathered from Google Scholar, government and organisational websites. Two independent reviewers would be involved in searching, study selection, data extraction and data analysis. A third reviewer would provide an arbitrary judgement during conflicts when disagreements persist after discussion. A meta-synthesis would be used to identify and report emerging themes in the literature.Ethics and dissemination The study does not require ethical approval. The findings would be published in peer-review journals and presented at research conferences.PROSPERO registration number CRD42023395013.