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

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Haskins ◽  
Sifiso A. Phakathi ◽  
Merridy Grant ◽  
Christiane M. Horwood

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.

Author(s):  
Janet Struber

Rural communities in Australia have particular health needs, and the recruitment and retention of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) is a significant concern. Despite the increasing number of AHPs being trained, vacancy and attrition rates in rural areas continue to rise. Professional and social isolation combined with rapidly changing health service delivery structures are identified as major deterrents to long-term rural practice. While strategies are now being implemented, endeavours to resolve the issues lag well behind initiates offered to Medical and Nursing staff. Given the wealth of political, professional and health related issues underlying the recruitment and retention of AHPs to rural areas, total resolution of this issue may not be possible. A unified approach by AHPs combined with concerted effort and collaboration on the part of all the stakeholders may, however, allow management at a level required to sustain a viable rural AHP workforce.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin O'Toole ◽  
Adrian Schoo ◽  
Andrea Hernan

The aim of this paper is to explore the lack of retention of allied health professionals in rural areas in Victoria, Australia. A structured telephone interview was used to elicit responses from 32 allied health professionals from south-west, central-west and north-east Victoria about their working experiences and reasons for resignation. The data revealed that work experiences in rural areas can be summarised within three domains: organisational, professional and personal/community. Under the organisational domain the participants were mainly focussed on the way in which their work arrangements require them to be both more generalist in their approach to day-to-day work, and more expansive in shouldering management style functions in the workplace. Under the professional domain there were three major issues; clinical, career and education/training. The personal/community domain focussed on issues to do with their affinity for their workplace as well as their location in a rural place. The attempts by government to address some of the leading factors for retention of allied health professionals are perhaps too narrowly focussed on the public sector and could encompass a wider approach. What is known about the topic?Although recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas is widely discussed, the professionals have not been interviewed about their experiences once they have left rural employment. What does this paper add?This paper provides detailed insights into the reasons why allied health professionals leave their positions in rural areas and the positive and negative aspects of living and working in a rural area. The results of this study contribute to the development of better policy models for recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas. What are the implications for practitioners?The factors that influence whether allied health professionals stay or leave rural areas is of concern for health policy makers at state and federal levels. This paper provides information for the extension and development of programs to attenuate rural leakage of professionals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
EMMANUEL KOMBA ◽  
LEOPOLD P. LUSAMBO

Abstract. Komba E, Lusambo LP. 2019. Socio-economic influences of Pangani river basin on community’s livelihoods in Korogwe, Tanga Region, Tanzania. Bonorowo Wetlands 10: 41-51. River basin`s resources are vital to basic livelihoods improvement and to the economy growth of the world. Although river basins played a significant role to Tanzania`s economic growth, little information is known on the socio-economic effects of river basin in the urban areas. To address the information gap between urban and rural areas, this study was conducted to: identify socio-economic activities undertaken by urban community along Pangani river basin, analyse gross profit from identified socio-economic activities and analyse factors influencing urban community`s dependency on river basin. Purposive sampling was used to select three wards among seven wards crossed by river basin. A cross-sectional research design was employed involving 90 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed using household questionnaire. Key informant’s informations were collected and three focus group discussions comprising 6-10 people were carried out using a developed checklist. Data were analysed using statistical package for social science (SPSS), gross margin analysis and multiple regression model. The findings revealed that, 33.3% of the respondents were conducting gardening activities, 26.7% crop cultivation, 26.7% brick making, 8.9% sand mining and 4.4% car wash activity. The overall gross profit was found to be TZS 5 263 736.00 per household/year which is higher than that recorded in previous researches conducted in rural areas. Soil fertility, land availability, water availability, access to market, conducive climatic condition and vicinity to new construction area were found to be significant factors influencing urban community to depend on river basin. The result prevail that, there is high utilisation of river basin resources in urban than in rural areas. The study recommends strengthening of community participation and awareness in conserving the sustainable river resources and further study on investigating economic efficiency of socio-economic activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 412-413
Author(s):  
Hee Yun Lee ◽  
Eun Young Choi ◽  
Youngsun Kim ◽  
Jessica Neese ◽  
Yan Luo

Abstract Despite the overall increase in Internet use among older adults, the digital divide within older Americans remains substantial. This trend is particularly true for older adults living in rural areas. Informed by the Social Determinants of Health Framework, our study aims to examine how one’s residential area relates to (1) Internet Access, (2) subtypes of usage patterns, and (3) perceptions on technology use. Cross-sectional data were drawn from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The sample consisted of 18,196 older adults aged 50 and above (47.6% rural residents). A series of linear and logistic regression analyses were performed. Our models controlled for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and health conditions. Compared to older adults living in urban areas, those residing in rural areas had 29% lower odds of internet access. Living in rural areas predicted lower levels of all sub-types of technology use (communication, financial, health, and media technology). In addition, non-users in rural areas showed more unfavorable perceptions of technology than urban residents. They were more likely to conceive technology as “too complicated”, “too hard to learn”, and “too difficult to keep up with all changes.” Our findings suggest that substantial segments of older adults in rural areas are still behind in accessing and adopting digital technology. Targeted intervention efforts are urgently needed to reduce technology inequality including comprehensive plans to expand broadband access and building mobile technology infrastructure for rural communities.


Author(s):  
Yachna Setu ◽  
Shiv Prakash ◽  
Khurshid Parveen ◽  
Richa Singh

Background: India was the first country to launch National Family Planning Program in 1952, but still the country’s desired total fertility rate and contraceptive prevalence rate have not achieved. The use of family planning methods is better in urban areas as compared to rural areas and it is worse in urban slums. Objective of the stud was to find out the utilization pattern of family planning methods and identifying the factors influencing it.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was carried out on eligible couples selected from urban slums of Allahabad district by multistage random sampling and were interviewed by using pre-tested schedule. Data analysis was done by using SPSS version 21.Results: A total of 356 eligible couples (age 15-49 years) were surveyed for a period of one year. It was observed that 45.78% (163/356) of eligible couples were using any of the family planning method and most commonly used method was female sterilization (53.98%), followed by condom (18.40%), then IUCDs (13.49%), injectables, OCPs and Natural methods (approx 4%) use. The use of family planning methods was found to be associated with women’s age, duration of marriage, caste categories, men’s education status, number of living children.Conclusions: The use of family planning methods is low in slums areas and to improve the condition awareness should be created. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
David A. Oladele ◽  
Mobolanle R. Balogun ◽  
Kofoworola Odeyemi ◽  
Babatunde L. Salako

Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is an important public health concern in Nigeria. TB-associated stigma could lead to delayed diagnosis and care, treatment default, and multidrug resistance. Understanding of TB-associated stigma is therefore important for TB control. The study is aimed at determining and comparing the knowledge, attitude, and determinants of TB-associated stigma. Methodology. This was a comparative cross-sectional study among adults in urban and rural areas of Lagos State, Nigeria. Respondents were selected through a multistage sampling technique and interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire, which contained the Explanatory Model Interviewed Catalogue (EMIC) stigma scale. IBM SPSS Statistics Software package version 20 was used for analysis. Results. A total of 790 respondents were interviewed. High proportions of respondents in rural and urban areas were aware of TB (97.5% and 99.2%, respectively). Respondents in the urban areas had overall better knowledge of TB compared to the rural areas (59.4% vs. 23%; p < 0.001 ), while respondents in the rural areas had a better attitude to TB (60.5% vs. 49.9%; p = 0.002 ). The majority of respondents in rural and urban areas had TB-associated stigma (93% and 95.7%, respectively). The mean stigma score was higher in the urban compared to rural areas ( 17.43 ± 6.012 and 16.54 ± 6.324 , respectively, p = 0.046 ). Marital status and ethnicity were the predictors of TB-associated stigma in the rural communities (AOR-0.257; CI-0.086-0.761; p = 0.014 and AOR–3.09; CI-1.087-8.812; p = 0.034 , respectively), while average monthly income and age of respondents were the predictors of TB-associated stigma in urban areas (AOR–0.274; CI–0.009-0.807; p = 0.019 and AOR-0.212; CI–0.057-0.788; p = 0.021 , respectively). Conclusion. TB-associated stigma is prevalent in both rural and urban areas in this study. There is therefore a need to disseminate health appropriate information through the involvement of the community. Also, innovative stigma reduction activities are urgently needed.


1970 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Maiti ◽  
KM Ali ◽  
D De ◽  
TK Bera ◽  
D Ghosh ◽  
...  

Objectives: Adolescents remain largely neglected and especially girl from a deprived section in our society. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the nutritional status of early adolescent school girl from rural and urban areas. The study was, therefore, carried out to determine and compare the nutritional status of adolescent girl attending urban and rural secondary schools in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. Methods: Cross-sectional data based on anthropometric measurements (height, weight) was collected from 2545 girls aged 10 to 14 years attending Govt. approved schools in Kharagpur town and Dantan-II block. The nutritional status has been assessed with the help of some anthropometric indices. The weight and height were recorded for each girl, and converted to nutritional indices (weightfor- age, height-for-height, BMI-for-age Z-scores of the National Center for Health Statistics reference standrads). Results: The mean nutritional indices (underweight, stunting and thinness) were found to be much lower among the rural girl than urban girl. The overall prevalent rates of underweight, stunting and thinness were 27.9%, 32.5% and 20.2% respectively. In the rural area these were 35.4%, 35.7% and 26.3%, while in the urban they were 19.6%, 29.0% and 13.6% respectively. Conclusions: The present study shows that undernutrition constituted major health problems among early adolescent school girls in rural areas of India. Hence, the special emphases are needed to formulate various developmental and healthcare programmes for rural communities to prevent undernutrition. Key words: Nutritional status; Early Adolescent girls; Rural; Urban DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jnps.v31i3.5352 J Nep Paedtr Soc 2011;31(3):169-174


Author(s):  
Remus Runcan

According to Romania’s National Rural Development Programme, the socio-economic situation of the rural environment has a large number of weaknesses – among which low access to financial resources for small entrepreneurs and new business initiatives in rural areas and poorly developed entrepreneurial culture, characterized by a lack of basic managerial knowledge – but also a large number of opportunities – among which access of the rural population to lifelong learning and entrepreneurial skills development programmes and entrepreneurs’ access to financial instruments. The population in rural areas depends mainly on agricultural activities which give them subsistence living conditions. The gap between rural and urban areas is due to low income levels and employment rates, hence the need to obtain additional income for the population employed in subsistence and semi-subsistence farming, especially in the context of the depopulation trend. At the same time, the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in rural areas is high and is at a resonance with the need to increase the potential of rural communities from the perspective of landscape, culture, traditional activities and local resources. A solution could be to turn vegetal and / or animal farms into social farms – farms on which people with disabilities (but also adolescents and young people with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and alexithymia issues) might find a “foster” family, bed and meals in a natural, healthy environment, and share the farm’s activities with the farmer and the farmer’s family: “committing to a regular day / days and times for a mutually agreed period involves complying with any required health and safety practices (including use of protective clothing and equipment), engaging socially with the farm family members and other people working on and around the farm, and taking on tasks which would include working on the land, taking care of animals, or helping out with maintenance and other physical work”


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