Abstract
BackgroundImbalance in distribution of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in a country is a global challenge. Almost all of the rural and underdeveloped areas are struggling with the shortage of HCWs, especially physicians. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors governing the retention of physicians in rural and underdeveloped areas.MethodsInternational databases including Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Proquest, and Embase were searched using Mesh terms in order to find peer-reviewed journal articles addressing physicians’ retention factors in rural and underdeveloped areas. The records were screened, and any duplicate results were removed. The quality of the studies was assessed according to the Critical Appraisal Skills Program developed for different types of studies. Then, through content analysis, the related factors were identified from finally selected papers, coded, and categorized.ResultsThe initial search resulted in 2312 relevant articles. On the basis of specific selection criteria, 35 full-text articles were finally reviewed.. The major affecting factors in physicians’ retention in rural and underdeveloped regions were classified into the following six categories: 1) financial; 2) career and professional; 3) working conditions; 4) personal; 5) cultural; and 6) living conditions factors.ConclusionThere is a complex interplay of factors governing physicians’ retention in rural and underdeveloped areas. If health organizations are concerned with physicians’ retention in deprived areas, they should take into account these main factors. Moreover, they should develop policies and strategies to attract and retain physicians in rural and underdeveloped areas.
Highlights
Imbalance in distribution of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in a country is a global challenge
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Health Workers (HWs) as all the people who are engaged in actions primarily intended to improve health [5]
A careful examination of the selected articles showed that 45 and 55% of the studies were concerned with the exploration of the factors governing the retention of physicians in underserved settings of the developed countries and the developing or underdeveloped countries, respectively
Summary
Imbalance in distribution of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in a country is a global challenge. Health Care Workers (HCWs) are the backbone of health organizations [1] and are considered as the main factor in public access to health services [2, 3]. The imbalance in the distribution of HCWs within countries is a common serious problem and can lead to challenges such as shortage of physicians in underdeveloped areas which in turn could pose challenges for the public access to health care services [6, 7]. Physicians play a vital role among the HCWs [4] They form a major group of HCWs, they have been neglected in the discussions about the health system functions in many developing as well as developed countries [8]. It restricts access to health services for people in these areas
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