Alhassan Robert Kaba, Beyere Christopher B, Nketiah-Amponsah Edward, Mwini-Nyaledzigbor Prudence P
School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
Health Training Institutions Unit, Ministry of Health Headquarters, Human Resources for Health Directorate, Accra, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2017 Oct 5;12(10):e0185748. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185748. eCollection 2017.
The population of Ghana is increasingly becoming urbanized with about 70% of the estimated 27 million people living in urban and peri-urban areas. Nonetheless, eight out of the ten regions in Ghana remain predominantly rural where only 32% of the national health sector workforce works. Moreover, the rural-urban disparities in the density of health tutors (staff responsible for pre-service training of health professionals) are enormous. This paper explores perceived needs of health tutors in rural and urban health training institutions in Ghana.
This is a descriptive qualitative study conducted in the Greater Accra and Northern regions of Ghana. The Study used the deductive thematic and sub-thematic analysis approaches. Five health training institutions were randomly sampled, and 72 tutors engaged in separate focus group discussions with an average size of 14 participants per group in each training institution.
Perceived rural-urban disparities among health tutors were found in the payment of extra duty allowances; school infrastructure including libraries and internet connectivity; staff accommodation; and opportunities for scholarships and higher education. Health tutors in rural areas generally expressed more frustration with these work conditions than those in urban areas.
There is the need to initiate and sustain work incentives that promote motivation of rural health tutors to control ongoing rural-urban migration of qualified staff. It is recommended the following incentives be prioritized to promote retention of qualified health tutors in rural health training schools: payment of research, book and rural allowances; early promotion of rural staff; prioritizing rural tutors for scholarships, and introduction of national best health tutor awards.
加纳人口城市化程度日益提高，估计2700万人口中约70%生活在城市及周边地区。尽管如此，加纳十个地区中有八个仍以农村为主，全国卫生部门仅有32%的工作人员在这些地区工作。此外，卫生培训师（负责卫生专业人员岗前培训的工作人员）密度的城乡差距巨大。本文探讨了加纳农村和城市卫生培训机构中卫生培训师的感知需求。
这是一项在加纳大阿克拉和北部地区进行的描述性定性研究。该研究采用了演绎主题和子主题分析方法。随机抽取了五所卫生培训机构，72名培训师分别参加了焦点小组讨论，每个培训机构每组平均有14名参与者。
卫生培训师在额外值班津贴的支付、包括图书馆和互联网连接在内的学校基础设施、工作人员住宿以及奖学金和高等教育机会等方面存在城乡差异。农村地区的卫生培训师对这些工作条件普遍比城市地区的培训师更感到沮丧。
有必要启动并维持工作激励措施，以促进农村卫生培训师的积极性，控制合格工作人员持续的城乡流动。建议优先考虑以下激励措施，以促进农村卫生培训学校留住合格的卫生培训师：支付研究、图书和农村津贴；提前晋升农村工作人员；优先考虑农村培训师获得奖学金，并设立全国最佳卫生培训师奖。
