Abstract
This paper highlights the extent of the brain drain in relation to human resources for health (HRH) that is currently challenging Kenya, and suggests strategies that have the potential to change current working environments and improve HRH retention rates. Governments in partnership with health professional bodies and regulators could improve the working conditions for psychiatrists and mental health nurses: by promoting career choices in mental health; by providing accessible professional development opportunities; and by easing workload pressures by expanding service reach through thoughtfully planned and delivered task-shifting to primary care. While these strategies have the potential to make a significant difference, the evidence suggests a brain drain will continue as long as working conditions remain sub-optimal and global HRH shortages persist.
Highlights
Health professionals in Kenya: strategies to expand reach and reduce brain drain of psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists
This paper highlights the extent of the brain drain in relation to human resources for health (HRH) that is currently challenging Kenya, and suggests strategies that have the potential to change current working environments and improve HRH retention rates
The situation is acute for mental health services in Kenya, where the numbers of specialist psychiatrists and mental health nurses fall well beneath the population ratios recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)
Summary
Health professionals in Kenya: strategies to expand reach and reduce brain drain of psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists. Governments in partnership with health professional bodies and regulators could improve the working conditions for psychiatrists and mental health nurses: by promoting career choices in mental health; by providing accessible professional development opportunities; and by easing workload pressures by expanding service reach through thoughtfully planned and delivered task-shifting to primary care While these strategies have the potential to make a significant difference, the evidence suggests a brain drain will continue as long as working conditions remain sub-optimal and global HRH shortages persist. The total cost of educating a nurse from primary school to nursing graduation was estimated to be US$43 180, with an equivalent loss on investment to migration of US$338 868 (Kirigia et al, 2006) In response to these figures, Kenya scaled up the production of HRH. Recent reports paint an alarming picture of severe nursing shortages in some counties and significant concerns about the impact of overwork on the quality of healthcare (Otieno, 2016)
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