Predictors of long-term staff retention at a rural secondary health care facility in central Nigeria

Abstract

Staff retention is closely related to employee satisfaction which in turn is intertwined with salaries and benefits. Secondary health care facilities in low resource settings are finding it difficult to retain their staff. This is more difficult for Faith based not- for-profit hospitals where the cost of services is kept at the barest minimum. This was a cross-sectional survey of health care workers using the Linda Powells (Mountains State Group Inc) self-administered questionnaire. The long-term retention rate was found to be 78.0%. Bivariate analysis showed that being married, health maintenance support staff, supervisory issues and training and salary issues had a significant association with long term retention intentions. Multinomial logistic regression showed that health management support staff (OR = 8.33; 95% CI 2.13 – 32.56) rather than Health Service Providers, and non-permanent staff (OR = 3.75; 95% CI 1.08 – 13.03) rather than permanent staff were more likely to have long term retention intentions. Surprisingly, staff who were not satisfied with training and salary issues (OR = 7.69; 95% CI 1.70 – 34.76) were more likely than those who were satisfied to have long term retention intentions. More than three quarters of the staff plan to continue to work in the hospital in the long term. Health management support staff, non-permanent staff and staff who were not satisfied with the level of training and salary were more likely to continue working in the hospital in the long term. This calls for long term retention strategies which pay attention to employee factors.