The global shortage of nurses has resulted in the demand for their services across different jurisdictions causing migration from developing to developed regions. This study aimed to review the literature on drivers of nurses’ migration intentions from source countries and offer future research directions. A search strategy was applied to ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus academic databases to find literature. The search was limited to peer-reviewed, empirical studies published in English from 2013–2023 resulting in 841 papers. The study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to conduct a systematic review of 35 studies after thorough inclusion and exclusion criteria. In addition, the VOSviewer software was utilized to map network visualization of keywords, geographic and author cooperation for bibliometric understanding. The findings revealed various socio-economic, organizational, and national factors driving nurses’ migration intentions. However, limited studies have been conducted on family income, organizational culture, leadership style, infrastructure development, social benefits, emergency service delivery, specialized training, and bilateral agreements as potential drivers for informing nurses’ migration intentions. Moreover, a few studies were examined from a theoretical perspective, mainly the push and pull theory of migration. This paper contributes to the health human resources literature and shows the need for future studies to consider the gaps identified in the management and policy direction of nurse labor migration.

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