Retention of Human Resources for Health : A challenge for health sectors in developing countries

Human resources for health shortages have reached epic proportions worldwide. Africa has the largest share of these shortages. The scarcity is compounded among other factors by mal-distribution and erosion of skilled health workforce. Developing countries struggle to produce, recruit and most importantly retain skilled health workers. There exists a perpetual poor retention cycle in many developing countries. This has a negative bearing on the effort to attain universal access to health care. A myriad of factors affect retention of skilled health workers in developing countries and these factors are examined at length in this book. Appropriate strategies to improve attraction and retention of health workers can only be devised with a vivid understanding of the factors that influence the decision by health workers to join and stay in the sector. This book will be of importance to researchers in the field of Human Resources for Health and Human Resources practitioners.