Authors: Haja R. Wurie, Sophie Witter
Coherent human resource for health (HRH) policies should be designed to address the challenges faced in recruitment and retention of health workers, particularly in developing countries. In Sierra Leone, there are challenges in providing equitable healthcare for all due in part to the current HRH situation, which includes an unequal distribution of the health workforce between urban and rural areas. There is therefore an urgent need for evidence based research that is policy driven and relevant to guide the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) to effectively plan, manage and utilise its valuable human resources.
Thus, to document the evolution of incentives for health workers post-conflict and their effects on HRH and the health sector and to derive a recommendation package for retention of rural health workers from a health worker’s perception, a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with health workers was conducted by ReBUILD in 2012-13. 23 public sector health workers of different cadres, working in four regions, were interviewed. The study used a life history approach to explore health workers’ experiences over time, including their decision to join the health professional workforce, the choices they made in taking jobs, their satisfiers/dissatisfiers, their experience of conflict, and their perceptions of the effectiveness of different policy measures. These themes were analysed taking gender, urban/rural and cadre of health professional differences into account.
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Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Country Ownership, Employee Engagement, Gender, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Motivation/incentives, Recognition/remuneration, Recruitment and Retention
Resource Type: Issue papers
Year: 2014
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Sierra Leone
Publisher May Restrict Access: No