Factors Influencing Retention of Health Care Workers in County Public Health Facilities in a Devolved System of Governance In Garissa County

Abstract

Retention of employees is one of the most important elements determining the health sector's viability in underdeveloped nations. Retention has received a lot of interest and remains to do so. This research sought to investigate the factors influencing health care workers retention in County public health facilities under a devolved system of governance in Garissa County. The study was guided by the following research objectives: To investigate the influence of regular promotion on health care workers retention in Garissa County public health facilities, to establish the influence of work and living environment on health care workers retention in Garissa County public health facilities, to assess the influence of essential commodity supplies on health care workers retention in Garissa County public health facilities and to determine the influence of special financial package on health care workers retention in Garissa County public health facilities. The research was anchored on two theories namely: The Needs Hierarchy Theory of Maslow and the Two-Factor Theory of Herzberg. To gather data from 134 healthcare professionals, the researchers adopted a descriptive research methodology using a Self-Administered Questionnaire. Sub-counties, primary healthcare institutions, and participants were sampled using stratified sampling and simple random sampling procedures. SPSS was used to analyze the data, and correlation and multiple regression were used to examine the connections between variables. The research established that regular promotion (ß = 0.239, p = .000 <p = 0.05), work and living environment (ß = 0.405, p = .000 <p = 0.05), Special financial package (ß = 0.122, p = .000 <p = 0.05) and provision essential supplies (ß = 0.625, p = .000 <p = 0.05) had a statistically significant influence on retention of healthcare workers in primary healthcare facilities in Garissa County when a joint regression model was considered. However, there was a statistically significant influence between all the four factors under study on the retention of health care workers. The study concludes that regular promotion, work and living environment, special financial package, and essential supplies influenced retention of healthcare workers in primary healthcare facilities in Garissa County. It was recommended that the County government management should ensure that every health care worker receives their salary on time all time. The supervisor in the County should ensure there is regular feedback to help improve health workers intention to stay. In addition, the management should ensure that health care workers work and live in a conducive environment, areas that have good shopping centers and entertainment and have safe, clean water for domestic use, should also provide health care workers with essential commodity supplies to improve health care workers intention to stay. The management should also ensure the workers have a manageable workload, ensure there is the availability of the supplies needed to do their job well and safely (drugs, gloves, bandages, needles etc), and also ensure there needed types of equipment to do their job well and effictively such as ultrasound, x-ray, blood pressure cuffs) are available.