MIGRATION INTENTION AND EMPLOYEE WITHDRAWAL: EVIDENCE FROM ACADEMIC MEDICAL DOCTORS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined he incremental contribution of migration intention to employee withdrawal behaviours among academic medical doctors in teaching hospitals in Edo State, Nigeria. Specifically, it considered overall withdrawal and three dimensions—absenteeism, lateness to work and psychological withdrawal—after accounting for selected demographic like sex and age and employment characteristics such as medical specialty and years of experience. The study was framed by the withdrawalprogression perspective and adopts a cross-sectional predictive survey design. A representative sample of 450 academic medical doctors was drawn through a multistage sampling procedure from three teaching hospitals in Edo State. Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire, with migration intention and withdrawal measured through multi-item scales. Hierarchical multiple regression was specified in two blocks: demographic and employment controls were entered first, followed by migration intention. The principal statistics were the change in explained variance (ΔR²), supported by the change-in-F test and adjusted regression coefficients. The study found that migration intention contributes explanatory information beyond respondent characteristics, while distinguishing migration intention from actual emigration and work withdrawal from employee turnover. The study showed great policy implication for public healthcare financing and counselling advocacy; particularly in critical sector like health care. It was recommended that government and hospital authorities should coordinate workforce planning across clinical service, teaching and research functions so that retention policies address the interconnected responsibilities of academic medical doctor