Demographic and Organisational Factors as Predictors of Retention Among Health Care Workers in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Retention of healthcare workers in Nigerian healthcare facilities is a crucial issue in Nigeria, which has a deficiency of qualified medical personnel. In recent times, unlike ever witnessed before, the quality and accessibility of healthcare services in Nigeria are seriously threatened by low healthcare worker retention. The cause of low retention among healthcare workers in Nigeria is unknown, hence, a need to investigate the predictive influence of demographic and organizational factors on employee resilience among healthcare workers in Nigeria. A total of 798 healthcare workers (92 medical doctors, 401 nurses, 92 radiologists, 75 pharmacists, 134 MBBS, and Equivalent while 4 technicians) were purposively selected for the study. Outcomes revealed that gender (β = .26, t= 8.55, p<.05), age (β = .22, t= 4.24, p<.05), state of origin (β = .06, t= 2.09, p<.05), marital status (β = .23, t= 7.17, p<.05) and education (β =-.38, t= -11.24 p<.05), job satisfaction (β = -.18, t= -2.95, p<.05) and perceived organizational support (β = .22, t= 2.99 p<.05) significantly predicted retention among healthcare workers. It was concluded that being female and unmarried, having negative/low job satisfaction, and perceiving positive/high organizational support predicted employee retention.