Factors influencing recruitment and retention of professional nurses, doctors and allied health professionals in rural hospitals in KwaZulu Natal

Health SA Gesondheid

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Factors influencing recruitment and retention of professional nurses, doctors and allied health professionals in rural hospitals in KwaZulu Natal
 
Creator Haskins, J. L. Phakathi, Sifiso A. Grant, Merridy Horwood, Christiane M.
 
Subject — Recruitment; Retention; Professional nurses; Doctors; Allied health professionals
Description Introduction: In South Africa fewer health professionals (HPs) work in rural areas compared to urban areas, despite rural communities having greater health needs. This study explores factors influencing recruitment and retention of three categories of HPs in KwaZulu-Natal and has implications about how to retain them in rural areas.Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted in 8 hospitals, 5 rural and 3 urban, in one district in KZN in 2011. Data were collected on single day in each hospital and all HPs on duty were requested to participate. We compared responses from rural and urban based HP as well as professional nurses (PNs), doctors, and allied HPs.Results: 417 questionnaires were completed: 150 from HPs in rural and 267 from HPs in urban hospitals. Perceptions of living/working in rural areas is negative and the quality of health care provided in rural areas is perceived as poor by all categories of HP. Rural-basedHPs were more likely to report living apart from spouse/partner (72.1% vs 37.0%, p 0.001)and children (76.7% vs 36.9%, p 0.001), and living in hospital accommodation (50.8% vs 28.9%; p 0.001).Conclusions: Decisions made by HP about where to work are complex, multifactorial and should be tailored to each category of health professional.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2017-10-10
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hsag.v22i0.984
 
Source Health SA Gesondheid; Vol 22 (2017); 174–183 2071-9736 1025-9848
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/984/1173
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2017 J. L. Haskins, Sifiso A. Phakathi, Merridy Grant, Christiane M. Horwood https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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