United States health professionals in international health work

This article reports results of a survey of 1,257 potential employers of US health professionals overseas, interviews with informants in international health, an analysis of career patterns of a small group of international health workers, and a review of numbers of health professionals trained in schools of public health for international health work. There are approximately 9,000 US health professionals in the international health field. Doctors (1,400), nurses (1,500) and administrators (900) are the largest groups. Church-related agencies (2,200 people), private voluntary agencies (1,700 people), and universities (1,000 people) are the largest employers.