Transnational Healthcare Practices Among Migrants: A Concept Analysis.
Kateryna Metersky, Sepali Guruge, Lu Wang and 9 others
PMID 39722540WHAT IT FOUND
Migrants often seek care in their home countries due to cultural familiarity, language barriers, and distrust of host systems.
This concept analysis identifies these drivers but offers no evidence on which interventions improve care or outcomes for clinicians.
Key findings
01The analysis defines transnational healthcare through five attributes: cultural comfort, perceived quality/trust, integration barriers/discrimination, digital/informal networks, and navigation challenges.
02Migrants frequently substitute or supplement host country care with care from their country of origin due to perceived better quality, cultural alignment, and language ease.
03Negative consequences include delays in seeking care, self-medication risks, and polypharmacy from mixing treatments across borders.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only three databases were searched, potentially missing relevant literature. Only English-language articles were included, limiting global perspective. The included studies were primarily qualitative, so the analysis describes experiences and perceptions rather than testing clinical outcomes. The concept of 'transnational healthcare' is relatively new, making it difficult to distinguish between different migrant subgroups (e.g., recent vs. long-term).
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by Toronto Metropolitan University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this paper as evidence that specific interventions (like interpreter services or cultural training) improve health outcomes. It is a theoretical concept analysis that describes why migrants seek care abroad, but it does not test whether changing practice reduces this behavior or improves patient health.