Abstract:
Background: Health workers turnover is an increasing problem that threatens the functioning
of the health care sector worldwide, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Although
the number of Hospitals in west Oromia had been increasing dramatically, there were shortages
of health professionals in the health facilities besides their high turnover. In spite of the
existence of such problem its factors affecting Health professionals’ intention to leave were not
well known in West Oromia, Ethiopia. Objective: To determine intention to leave and associated factors among health professionals in
west Oromia public hospitals.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study design was employed from February 10 to 30, 2017. Five Hospitals from 14 Hospitals were selected using simple random sampling technique. All (534) health professionals working in the selected facilities were included in the survey. Self
administered structured questionnaire was used to collect information. The data was entered with
Epi-data and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Variables which showed association in
multivariate analysis was considered as final predictors of intention to leave and strength of
association was measured through adjusted odd ratio. Ethical approval was obtained from Jimma
University. Result; A total of 284 out of 534 (53.2%) of health professionals’ have intention to leave the
west Oromia hospitals. Respondents who have poor working environment (AOR=11.7,
95%CI:6.72 20.45), Absence of regular promotion and limited career opportunity (AOR=4.2,
95% CI:2.49,7.20), Respondent Qualification 2.9 (95%CI:1.64,5.22)], Poor salary
(AOR=3.9(95% CI:2.35,6.37), and being dissatisfied in involvement in decision making 7(95%
CI:4.67,10.74), were significantly associated with health professionals intention to leave their
current job.
Conclusion: There is high level of health professionals’ intention to leave from public Hospitals
which can enormously affect the coverage and quality of health services in the west Oromia.
Therefore, it is advisable that West Oromia public Hospitals to improving working environment,
involvement in decision making and organizational commitment for health professionals.
