Recruitment

Given the complexity of the social, professional and economic factors that influence motivation, this article addresses how institutions make rural job postings more attractive and how they can identify what kinds of incentive packages can attract and motivate young, bright graduates to serve the areas of their country that are most in need. [adapted from author]

This quantitative research study used a computerized structured survey containing a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to quantify the importance of different incentives and policies to encourage service to deprived, rural and remote areas by upper-year midwifery students following graduation. [from abstract]

Using qualitative interviews, the authors aimed to explore factors motivating mental health workers in order to inform interventions to increase recruitment and retention. [from abstract]

The aim of this study was to understand medical career choices and the factors that influence medical students’ and young doctors’ career choices in Nepal and to understand what would encourage them to work in rural areas as generalists. [from abstract]

is study aims to broaden the understanding of factors associated with recruitment and retention of occupational therapists and physiotherapists in rural regions, through a synthesis of evidence from qualitative studies found in the literature. [from abstract]

This toolkit is intended to allow human resources managers to determine health professionals’ motivational preferences for accepting and remaining in posts. The toolkit builds on the WHO global policy recommendations for rural retention and is based on the discrete choice experiment, a powerful research method that identifies the trade-offs health professionals (or other types of workers) are willing to make between specific job characteristics and determines their preferences for various incentive packages, including the probability of accepting a post in a rural health facility.

This free online course, developed by the HRH Global Resource Center and CapacityPlus, is based on the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit. This course will orient participants on how to use a rapid discrete choice experiment methodology to design evidence-based incentives to attract and retain health workers in rural and remote areas. [from publisher]

This study investigated preferences for job characteristics among final year medical, nursing, pharmacy, and laboratory students at select universities in Uganda to elicit preferences for attributes of potential job postings they were likely to pursue after graduation. [adapted from abstract]

This study aims to identify aspects of recruitment and retention of rural allied health professionals using qualitative methodology to establish the motives and conditions that encourage allied health professionals to practice rurally. [from abstract]

This report contains results from descriptive analysis of a cohort study with final year health students in Ethiopia to build a base line for a cohort survey with future health workers and to provide insights on the supply side aspect of human resources in the health sector. [adapted from summary]

Using qualitative data from Rwanda, this study focuses on four institutional factors that affect health worker performance and career choice: incentives, monitoring arrangements, professional norms and health workers’ intrinsic motivation. It also provides illustrations of three institutional innovations that work, at least in the context of Rwanda: performance pay, the establishment of community health workers and increased attention to the training of health workers. [adapted from introduction]

The government of Rwanda has identified human resources for health as one of its policy priorities. This study aims to contribute to building a better understanding of health worker choice and behaviour, and to improve evidence based polcies. [from summary]

This paper estimates the effectiveness of a range of policy interventions aimed at improving the supply of health workers to rural areas in Ethiopia. Using data from a survey of 861 health workers, it employs stated preference techniques to predict labor market responses of doctors and nurses to changes in rural wages, working conditions, housing bene…ts, and training opportunities. [from abstract]

The objective of this article is to argue that it is important for all stakeholders involved in rural recruitment and/or retention processes to consider their decisions and actions from an ethics perspective. [from abstract]

The aim of this study is to describe primary health care manager’ attitudes and views on recruitment and human resource development in general and to ascertain whether there are any differences in the views of managers in the southern and northern regions of Finland. [from abstract]

This research examines the factors that current health professionals from the U.S. Pacific Islands region describe as helping and hindering them in their pursuit of health careers, as well as the barriers seen by students, educators and health professionals. [from abstract]

This paper describes the history of development of a WHO code of practice as well as the legal nature and significance of this proposed international instrument. The paper then highlights some key substantive issues to consider when elaborating the text of a WHO code of practice, and presents the process for moving forward the development of a WHO code of practice. [adapted from introduction]

This code provides guidelines for an ethical approach to the international recruitment of health workers in a manner that takes into account the potential impact of such recruitment on health services in the source country and it seeks to safeguard the rights of recruits, and the conditions relating to their profession in the recruiting countries. [from author]

The aim of this policy is to promote high standards of practice in the recruitment and employment of health professionals who are not South African Citizens or permanent residents in the health sector in South Africa. It attempts to preclude the active recruitment of health professionals from developing countries without specific government agreements. [adapted from author]

This article analysed the rural doctor shortage in Nepal and reviewed the international literature for strategies that may be suitable for use in Nepal. [from abstract]

This is an independent evaluation of the six-year Emergency Human Resource Programme, which was designed to address the health crisis in Malawi largely caused by an acute shortage of professional workers in the public health sector. Central to this commitment was the need to improve staffing levels and increase the production of health workers through a coherent package of financial incentives and investments in local health training institutions. [from summary]

This article outlines the introduction of a special contracting system to recruit health workers to improve the posting, recruitment and retention of health workers in rural and remote areas. [adapted from abstract]

This paper builds on earlier work assessing the evidence on effectiveness of interventions to increase access to health workers in rural and remote areas - focusing mainly on studies that evaluated interventions and their impact on the health workforce and health systems performance. [adapted from introduction]

A study across three countries to identify policies which would help recruit and retain health workers in rural areas revealed that there is a danger in one size fits all recommendations when it comes to designing human resource policies. Results also show that there is room for both financial and non-financial incentives in human resource interventions in developing countries. [from author]

This article posits that out-migration of health workers is not a critical contributor to health workforce shortages in Nigeria’s rural and remote areas and that more important factors include: contraction of government health spending as a percentage of GDP despite deteriorating health conditions, public health management systems that operate by default rather than by design, spartan living conditions outside urban areas, inadequate training of appropriate cadres of health staff, limited facilities and medications for effective delivery of clinical services, and burnout of overworked and unde

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]

The objective of this study was to analyse in what way HRH recruitment, deployment and retention at the district level are influenced by external funding; and to what extent this is in line with national and district policies and strategies. [from abstract]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is severe competition for personnel and staff time between various health programmes and between public and private providers. Such competition is reinforced by the vertical nature of various funding mechanisms supported by bilateral donors, international NGOs and global initiatives. The objective of this study was to analyse in what way HRH recruitment, deployment and retention at the district level are influenced by externally funded programmes. [from summary]

This paper reports on how to improve recruitment of surgical trainees and training of surgeons in Uganda, focusing on perceptions of potential trainees, trainers, and medical administrators. [from introduction]

This issue of Voices discusses the impact of the Emergency Hiring Plan developed in combination with the Capacity Project and the Kenyan Ministry of Health to increase the number of qualified professionals working in Kenya’s public health facilities. [adapted from author]