Factors Influencing Brain Drain Among Health Workers in Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/ejh.1349Keywords:
Developing countries, health workers, migration, brain drain, low remuneration.Abstract
Purpose: The advent of the covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the need for more professional health workers to serve as front-line workers in hospitals in Ghana and other developing countries. This study aimed to ascertain the factors influencing health workers' brain drain in Ghana.
Methodology: The study was a survey with an accessible population of 15510 people in different categories of health workers. Sampling was through stratification for a sample size of 400 respondents across the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Structured questionnaires were used for the data collection and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) as a statistical tool to generate descriptive statistics that included the mean, standard deviation and ranks based on which inferences were drawn.
Findings: The study found that government inaction on the conditions of service of health workers such as low remuneration, inadequate opportunities for staff development, poor equipment replacement policies, political interferences in their workplaces, high standards of living and inadequate housing and personal reasons amount to the reasons why Ghana is losing the majority of her finest health workers to the developed nations. The study concluded that the migration of healthcare professionals from developing to developed nations has negative effects on the delivery of healthcare in Ghana especially coming out of a deadly pandemic.
Recommendation: The study recommends that government deals with the motivation and hygiene factors as well as the push and pull economic factors that drive many health workers to seek "greener pastures" outside the country hence the trend could continue in the coming years.
Downloads
References
Ajayi, L. (2009). An exploration of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of learning to teach while using the asynchronous discussion board. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (2), 86-100.
Alhassan R K, Spieker N, van Ostenberg P, Ogink A, Nketiah-Amponsah E, & de Wit T. F. (2013). Association between health worker motivation and healthcare quality efforts in Ghana. Human Resource Health., 11:37.
Anarfi, J., Quartey, P., & Agyei, J. (2010). Key Determinants of Migration among Health Professionals in Ghana. Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalization & Poverty. Brighton, UK.
Asamani, et al. (2021). The cost of health workforce gaps and inequitable distribution in the Ghana Health Service: an analysis towards evidence-based health workforce planning and management. Human Resource Health 19(43).
Boakye, D. S., & Mavhandu-Mudzusi, A. H. (2019). Nurses' knowledge, attitudes and practices towards patients with HIV and AIDS in Kumasi, Ghana. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 11, 100147.
Chibango C. (2013). Zimbabwe’s Medical Brain Drain: Impact Assessment on Health Service Delivery and Examination of Policy Responses – A Literature Review. European Journal of Sustainable Development 2(4), 43-58.
Coghlan, D. & Brydon-Miller, M. (2014). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research. London: Sage.
Curtis, B., & Curtis, C. (2011). Social research. SAGE Publications, Inc.,
Dartey-Baah K, & Amoako G. K. (2011). Application of Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work: a Ghanaian Perspective. European Journal of Business Management 3(9):1-8.
Evans, O. (2020). Socio-Economic Impacts of Novel Coronavirus: The Policy Solutions. BizEcons Quarterly, 7, 3-12.
Foster R. S. (2010). Estimated financial effects of “patient protection and affordable care act” as amended. Baltimore: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Ghana Health Service (2010). The Health Sector in Ghana: Facts and Figures. Accra: Ghana.
Ghana Health Service (2020). Human Resource Annual Report—2019. Accra: Ghana Health Service.
Ghana Health Service (2020). Situation update, COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana. Accra: Ghana.
Ghana Human Resource for Health Country Profile (2021). https://www.moh.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Ghana-hrh-country-profile.pdf
Goetz, K, Kleine-Budde, K, Bramesfeld, A, Stegbauer, C. (2018). Working atmosphere, job satisfaction and individual characteristics of community mental health professionals in integrated care. Health Soc Care Community, 26(2)176– 181
International Organization for Migration (2005). The Millennium Development Goal and Migration 20(2), 1607-338.
Joint Learning Initiative (2004). Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis. Cambridge, MA: Global Equity Initiative, Harvard University Journal, 3(1), 34–37.
Labonté, R., Cobbett, E., Orsini, M., Spitzer, D., Schrecker, T., & Ruckert, A. (2015). Globalization and the health of Canadians:’ Having a job is the most important thing. Globalization and health, 11(1), 1-16.
Oleribe O O, Ezieme I P, Oladipo O, Akinola E P, Udofia D, Taylor-Robinson SD. (2016). Industrial action by healthcare workers in Nigeria in 2013–2015: an inquiry into causes, consequences and control—a cross-sectional descriptive study. Human resources for Health 14(1):1–10.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2002): International mobility of the highly skilled (Paris, 2002a). Trends in international migration: Annual report, Migration statistics and GATS mode 4, Paper presented at the UN/EU Conference of European Statisticians.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2010). Effects of Migration on Sending Countries: What Do We Know? OECD Development Centre. Working Paper (250). Research Programme: Economic and Social Effects of Migration on Sending Countries in Okeke E. (2009). African doctor migration: Are economic shocks to blame?
Orszag P. R., & Emanuel E. J. (2010). The health care reform and cost control. The New England Journal of Medicine, 363(7), 601–3.
Owusu-Ansah, J. (2015). Brain-Drain in Ghana’s Health Sector: A Case Study of Why Doctors and Nurses Emigrate. THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Policy.
Polit, D.F. & Beck, C.T., 2017. Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice; 2008. 10th edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Pujari, D. R. (2020). Impact of CORONA Virus on Indian Education Systems. UGC Care Journal, 31, 1-3.
Raza, Y. & Akhtar, W. & Husnain, M. & Akhtar, M. (2015). The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation on Employee’s Job Satisfaction. Management and Organizational Studies. 2. (10), 543.
Sampath, F. P. J. (2019). The Relationship between Brain Circulation and Industry Growth: A Case Study of the Knowledge Services Industry in Sri Lanka (Doctoral dissertation, Nagoya University)
Shiao J S-C, Koh D, Lo L-H, Lim M-K, Guo Y L. (2017). Factors Predicting Nurses’ Consideration of Leaving their Job During the Sars Outbreak. Nursing Ethics.14(1):5-17.
Short, S. D. (2016). Health workforce governance: Improved access, good regulatory practice, safer patients. Routledge.
Tiruneh, D. (2020). COVID-19 School Closures May Further Widen the Inequality Gaps between the Advantaged and the Disadvantaged in Ethiopia. The Education and Development Form.
United Nations (2015). Setting norms in the United Nations system: the draft Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families in relation to ILO in Standards on Migrant Workers’. International.
United Nations Population Division (2013). International migration report 2012 www.unpopulation.org.
Whitley, E., & Ball, J. (2002). Statistics review 4: sample size calculations. Critical care (London, England), 6(4), 335–341.
WHO (2006). The World Health Report 2006—Working Together for Health. Geneva: World Health Organization
WHO (2020). Promoting health through the life course [Internet]. WHO. World Health Organization; Available from: http://www.who.int/life-course/en/ [Cited 11 Jun 2020].
Woday T. A, Mihret S. T, Biset G. (2020). Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 among College Students in Dessie Town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia; Cross-Sectional Study, British Medical Journal (pp. 1-16).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Sussana Adjei-Mensah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
