Bagayoko Cheick-Oumar, Gagnon Marie-Pierre, Traoré Diakaridia, Anne Abdrahamane, Traoré Abdel Kader, Geissbuhler Antoine
Centre d'Expertise et de Recherche en Télémédecine et E-Santé, CERTES, Bamako, Mali.
Faculté de Médecine et d'Odonto-Stomatologie, FMOS, Bamako, Mali.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2014 Dec 24;14:120. doi: 10.1186/s12911-014-0120-8.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived influence of telehealth on recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in remote areas in Mali.
After 15 months of diagnosis imaging training and telehealth activities at four project sites in remote Mali, between May 2011 and August 2012, a 75-item questionnaire was administered to healthcare professionals to assess the various factors related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially telehealth, and their influence on health personnel recruitment and retention. Questions assessing perceived impact of telehealth on recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals were rated on a five-point Likert scale. Dependent variables were perceived influence of ICT on recruitment and retention and independent variables were access to ICT, ICT training, ICT use, perceived benefits and drawbacks of telehealth, and perceived barriers to recruitment and retention. A multiple linear regression was performed to identify variables explaining the respondents' perceptions regarding telehealth influence on recruitment and retention.
Data analysis showed that professionals in remote areas have very positive perceptions of telehealth in general. Many benefits of telehealth for recruitment and retention were highlighted, with perceived benefits of ICT (p = 0.0478), perceived effects of telehealth on recruitment (p = 0.0018), telehealth training (0.0338) and information on telehealth (0.0073) being the strongest motivators for recruitment, while the perceived effects of telehealth on retention (p = 0.0018) was the only factor significantly associated with retention.
Based on our study results, telehealth could represent a mechanism for recruiting and retaining health professionals in remote areas and could reduce the isolation of these professionals through networking opportunities.
本研究旨在评估远程医疗对马里偏远地区医疗保健专业人员招聘和留用的感知影响。
2011年5月至2012年8月期间，在马里偏远地区的四个项目地点进行了15个月的诊断成像培训和远程医疗活动后，向医疗保健专业人员发放了一份包含75个条目的问卷，以评估与信息通信技术（ICT）尤其是远程医疗相关的各种因素，以及它们对卫生人员招聘和留用的影响。评估远程医疗对医疗保健专业人员招聘和留用的感知影响的问题采用五点李克特量表进行评分。因变量是ICT对招聘和留用的感知影响，自变量是ICT的获取、ICT培训、ICT使用、远程医疗的感知益处和弊端，以及招聘和留用的感知障碍。进行多元线性回归以确定解释受访者对远程医疗对招聘和留用影响的看法的变量。
数据分析表明，偏远地区的专业人员总体上对远程医疗持非常积极的看法。强调了远程医疗在招聘和留用方面的许多好处，其中ICT的感知益处（p = 0.0478）、远程医疗对招聘的感知影响（p = 0.0018）、远程医疗培训（0.0338）和远程医疗信息（0.0073）是招聘的最强激励因素，而远程医疗对留用的感知影响（p = 0.0018）是与留用显著相关的唯一因素。
根据我们的研究结果，远程医疗可能是在偏远地区招聘和留用卫生专业人员的一种机制，并可通过网络机会减少这些专业人员的孤立感。
