Retention

This report is based on the accounts of 90 Ugandan health workers at the front line. The research explored with them the rewards and the challenges, explanations for perceived poor practices and promising solutions. The interim findings focus on the rewards of being a health worker and how low pay affects them. [from introduction]

This technical report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Ministry of Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization and CapacityPlus, using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit. The DCE surveyed health professional students and health workers practicing in rural provinces to investigate their motivational preferences for potential strategies to increase attraction and retention in the country’s rural and remote settings. [from publisher]

This study aims to clarify the level of job satisfaction of Chinese community health workers between a metropolitan and a small city in Liaoning province and explore its associated factors. [from abstract]

There is an accumulating body of evidence on gender differences in health workers’ employment patterns and pay, but inequalities in access to non-pecuniary benefits between men and women have received little attention. This study investigates empirically whether gender differences can be observed in health workers’ access to non-pecuniary benefits across six low- and middle-income countries. [from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of preference for rural job characteristics among fourth year medical students in Ghana including salary, infrastructure, management style, and contract length in considering future jobs. [from author]

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of internal marketing, all the actions that an organization (i.e., health care organizations, hospitals) has to perform in order to develop, train and motivate its employees to enhance the quality of the services provided to its customers, on job satisfaction in health services - particularly in public hospitals in Northern Greece. [adapted from author]

The aim of this paper is to explore the challenges generated by HIV care and treatment and their impact on health worker motivation in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. [from abstract]

The objectives of this paper are to provide an overview of pay-for-performance schemes used to stimulate delivery of chronic care through disease management and to provide insight into their effects on healthcare quality and costs. [from abstract]

This article presents the results of an evaluation of a project in Pakistan to contribute to learning about the design and implementation of pay-for-performance systems and their impact on health worker motivation. [adapted from abstract]

This research evaluates the potential effect of job motivation, learning and self-assessment through performance appraisals for health personnel. [from introduction]

This study examined work related characteristics, work-home and home-work interference and burnout among Serbian primary healthcare physicians and compared burnout levels with other medical doctors in European Union countries. [from abstract]

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intention, and further to determine whether occupational burnout can serve as a mediator among Chinese physicians from urban state-owned medical institutions. [from abstract]

This paper presents a summary of a regional program on incentives for health worker retention. The studies sought to investigate the causes of migration of health professionals, the strategies used to retain health professionals, how they are being implemented, monitored and evaluated, as well as their impact, to make recommendations to enhance the monitoring, evaluation and management of non-financial incentives for health worker retention. [from summary]

The Ministry of Health, in partnership with CapacityPlus, conducted a discrete choice experiment survey among current students in health training programs as well as health workers practicing in rural districts to investigate preferences for potential attraction and retention strategies. The results constitute an important input to the policy-making process related to the identification, costing, and selection of possible retention interventions for implementation. [from publisher]

What will motivate health workers to stay in rural areas? This brief presents an overview of the issue of retention along with suggested actions, key considerations, and resources. [from publisher]

This study details the perceived benefits, problems, and risks of abuse of per diems and allowances in developing countries. Drawing on 41 interviews with government and nongovernmental officials in Malawi and Uganda the report highlights how practices to maximize per diems have become a defining characteristic of many public institutions and influence how employees carry out their work. As per diems have become de facto top ups of salaries, more fundamental reform of health worker incentives and payment is also needed. [from abstract]

This paper assesses the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on willingness to accept postings to deprived areas among medical students in Ghana. [from abstract]

Pay for Performance (P4P) programs, based on provision of financial incentives for service quality, have been widely adopted to enhance quality of care and to promote a more efficient use of health care resources whilst improving patient outcomes. The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether it is possible to implement P4P programs in the Lombardy Region, in Italy, based on the existing data set. [from abstract]

As part of the collaborative to improve the efficiency of HIV service delivery, the authors conducted a baseline assessment of HIV/AIDS provider productivity, efficiency, and engagement in Uganda. [adapted from author]

This paper reviews the evidence on costing interventions to improve health workforce recruitment and retention in remote and rural areas, provides guidance to undertake a costing evaluation of such interventions and investigates the role and importance of costing to inform the broader assessment of how to improve health workforce planning and management. [from abstract]

This study used the Maslach Burnout Inventory to evaluate the degree of burnout among junior doctors at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the influence on the retention of valuable skills in the hospital. [from author]

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the impact of nurse turnover and highlight the benefits of workforce stability. The cost of turnover and turnover issues are examined in relation to the existing literature and with an international lens. [from summary]

While per diems appear to have been originally used to compensate for the loss of time and income caused by such participation, today they have become political instruments that taint research and intervention activities. The author believes per diems are contributing to expected failure of Africa to meet the Milliennium Development Goals by 2015 because they reduce the potential effectiveness of interventions and dilute health sector resources. [from author]

The main objective of this article is to explore health workers’ experience of working conditions, linked to motivation to work. [from abstract]

This study reportw changes between 2006 and 2008 in numbers and employment status of health staff in three districts of Indonesia following the central government decision to offer doctors, nurses and midwives on contract the chance to convert to permanent civil service status. [adapted from abstract]

Physicians leaving and reentering clinical practice can have significant medical workforce implications. This study surveyed inactive physicians younger than typical retirement age to determine their reasons for clinical inactivity and what barriers, real or perceived, there were to reentry into the medical workforce. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of loan repayment and other factors on the recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural Colorado, USA, and to compare the motivations and attitudes of these rural providers with their urban counterparts. [from introduction]

The objective of this paper is to identify important aspects of health worker satisfaction and motivation in two Indian states working in public and private sectors. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to investigate how medical and nursing staff of the Nicosia General Hospital is affected by specific motivation factors, and the association between job satisfaction and motivation; and to determine the motivational drive of socio-demographic and job related factors in terms of improving work performance. [from abstract]

Carmen Dolea of the World Health Organization talks about the challenge of retaining health workers in rural areas, and how CapacityPlus is helping to apply the WHO’s new retention recommendations. [from author]