International professional mobility is a reality, people have skills they can put in the global marketplace. The increasing migration of health professionals to wealthy countries is a phenomenon known as “brain drain”.

This work aims to present the push factors that pressure people to migrate from Portugal.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out with the psychiatric trainees in Portugal. A self-administered structured questionnaire was distributed to collect psychiatry trainees’ demographic and educational characteristics.

In Portugal, the majority of trainees have a Portuguese citizenship. Almost 2/3 did not have a short-mobility experience, and the majority never migrated to another country. Less than half consider staying in Portugal in the next years, and nearly 4/5 have considered leaving the country. Working conditions ranked first as the priority condition to be improved in psychiatry in Portugal, followed by financial conditions. In fact, an attractive job for psychiatry trainees in Portugal must have as the most important feature a pleasant work environment.

An alarming percentage of psychiatry trainees from Portugal intend to migrate. Impact on future career, financial conditions of doctors, job opportunities and better working conditions were some of the motivating factors behind the migration.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.