Objective

To analyse the media representation of the exodus of Spanish nurses to the United Kingdom through general information newspapers.

Methods

Content analysis, quantitative and qualitative. Documents published in the newspapers ABC, El País, El Mundo and La Razón, about “emigrants,” “nurses” and “migrant health workers,” were located from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2016, with Boolean operators. This selected period corresponds to the beginning of the economic crisis and concludes in the year of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom. After applying the descriptors, 9559 texts were obtained. Once the noise of the documents was eliminated, 484 textual units were found. To carry out a more exhaustive analysis, the specific documents on “migrant nurses”, which were 77, were selected and analysed qualitatively.

Results

a) 2013 was the year in which the most stories about emigration in general were published, and also about nurses in particular; b) theABCnewspaper published the most stories about the exodus of nurses to the United Kingdom (31); c)El Paíspublished the most texts on Spanish emigration, with a total of 397 documents; d) 98% of the headlines analysed (n = 77) had a negative tone; and e) social discourse had greater relevance than political discourse.

Conclusions

The press promoted the push factor for nurses to migrate to the United Kingdom.

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