Predictors of health professionals’ intention to leave Among public health facilities of benishangul-gumuz Region, west ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Recruits intention to leave and turnover continues to be an important challenge facing health care systems and leads to loss of human wealth at national, regional and local levels. Ethiopia is being gravely affected by dearth and migration of health professionals; one cause of this shortage of human resources is turnover. Consequently, this study was meant to make out possible factors affecting intent to leave of health professionals in the region and to pinpoint the way forward that prop up future efforts to annihilate the quandary. Objective: To assess proportion and predictors of health professionals’ intent to leave in public health facilities of Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, April 2014. Methods: A facility based cross sectional study design using quantitative methods of data collection was employed from April 1-30/2014. The data were collected through in-person interview of professional care providers. The sample size for the professional care provider’s interview was 303. Stratified random sampling was employed to select health professionals practicing in 10 health centers and the 2 hospitals in the region. Descriptive statistics was used to determine proportions of health professionals’ intent to leave. Binary logistic regression was made to determine the association between health professionals’ intent to leave and independent variables. The strength of statistical association was measured by adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval. Statistical significance was declared at P<0.05. Result/Conclusion: This study made known that the proportion of intent to leave was 66%. Independent predictors of intent to leave were eight in numbers and are family related problems, expectation not fulfilled, high salary, promotion opportunity, better education, low salary, high work load and low career opportunity. Recommendation: Regional health bureau and its stake holders should confer payable attention to workers family related predicament, expectation, promotion, education opportunity, work load and career advancement to hold on longevity of health workforces in the organization