INTRODUCTION
Recruitment and retention of health workers is everybody’s business; everybody is a patient at some point in their lives. Patients deserve access to high quality care from a well-qualified workforce. Equally, healthcare staff deserve to work in well-supported environments, with staffing levels that promote safe, high quality care. Many countries report difficulties in retaining and recruiting health staff with increasing shortages predicted longer term. This course reviews the existing information and evidence in and beyond the wide range of initiatives aimed at tackling problems in recruiting and retaining health staff. It offers a range of case examples with recommendations highlighting key factors to support and optimise the success of recruitment and retention interventions in the health sector.
There are significant economic costs for employers and the public sector in a country when a professional drops out of the health labour market. By improving retention, organisations and countries reduce these costs. There is a business case both for more efficient recruitment and retention, and also for safeguarding the quality of health services. A high turnover of staff reduces the availability and continuity of care and is an obstacle to the creation of stable teams of providers, all of which has a negative impact on quality and cost of services.