Understanding the factors influencing health-worker employment decisions in South Africa
Article
Article Title | Understanding the factors influencing health-worker employment decisions in South Africa |
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ERA Journal ID | 41847 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | George, Gavin (Author), Gow, Jeff (Author) and Bachoo, Shaneel (Author) |
Journal Title | Human Resources for Health |
Journal Citation | 11 (1), pp. 15-21 |
Number of Pages | 7 |
Year | 2013 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1478-4491 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-15 |
Web Address (URL) | https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-4491-11-15 |
Abstract | Background: The provision of health care in South Africa has been compromised by the loss of trained health workers (HWs) over the past 20 years. The public-sector workforce is overburdened. There is a large disparity in service levels and workloads between the private and public sectors. There is little knowledge about the nonfinancial factors that influence HWs choice of employer (public, private or nongovernmental organization) or their choice of work location(urban, rural or overseas). This area is under-researched and this paper aims to fill these gaps in the literature. Method: The study utilized cross-sectional survey data gathered in 2009 in KwaZulu-Natal province. The HWs sample came from three public hospitals (n=430), two private hospitals (n=131) and one nongovernmental organization hospital (n=133) in urban areas, and consisted of Conclusions: To minimize attrition from the overburdened public-sector workforce and the negative effects of the overall shortage of HWs, innovative efforts are required to address the causes of HWs dissatisfaction and to further identify the nonfinancial factors that influence work choices of HWs. The results highlight the importance of considering a broad range of nonfinancial incentives that encourage HWs to remain in the already overburdened public sector. |
Keywords | health workers; human resources for health; public sector; private sector; nongovernmental organization sector; KwaZulu-Natal; South Africa |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 380113. Public economics - public choice |
380108. Health economics | |
520104. Industrial and organisational psychology (incl. human factors) | |
Byline Affiliations | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
School of Accounting, Economics and Finance | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q1y82/understanding-the-factors-influencing-health-worker-employment-decisions-in-south-africa
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