BRAIN DRAIN AMONG HEALTH WORKERS AND RETENTION STRATEGIES IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN, NIGERIA
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The brain drain among health workers from developing to developed countries remains a critical
issue on healthcare systems, notably at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. In this
regard, this study gave practical and evidence-based recommendations geared at reducing the brain
drain among health workers and improving the strategies for retaining them within UCH, Ibadan.
The subsidiary objectives highlighted the existing retention strategies, evaluated their
effectiveness, identified the deficiencies within the strategies, and how the institution's policies
relate to the implementation. In this explanatory mixed-method design study, quantitative data
were collected from 225 doctors and nurses using structured questionnaires, and some qualitative
insights were obtained from 19 Key Informants namely, surgeons, senior consultants, assistant
chief nursing officer amongst others. The findings were interpreted using SPSS software 27 for
statistical analyses and ATLAS.ti 24 software for the thematic analysis. The findings indicated
that UCH Ibadan retention strategies are limited and have yet to effectively mitigate the brain drain
among its health workers. However, from the regression analysis it shows that the more the
effective retention strategies are, the less occurrence of brain drain among health workers. The
study also revealed a high positive relationship between identifiable gaps in current retention
strategies and the continuous brain drain, with a correlation coefficient of 0.221, p < 0.05. On the
contrary, institutional policies were not significantly associated with brain drain and maintained
an extremely weak positive relationship, evidenced by the correlation coefficient of 0.092 (p >
0.05). This study was limited to UCH, Ibadan, and 2021-2023. Hence, generalisability to other
healthcare institutions is limited. This research adds to understanding healthcare worker retention
and brain drain dynamics at UCH, Ibadan. It provides empirical evidence for the implementation
of context-specific retention strategies. Relevant stakeholders, including hospital management and
institutional policymakers, must collaborate to implement targeted interventions that address
identified gaps in retention strategies and institutional policies. These are efforts to stabilise
healthcare workforce dynamics and ensure enhanced organisational performance. Evidence-based
retention strategies can then be implemented at the UCH, Ibadan, to avert the brain drain, leading
to improved job satisfaction and healthcare delivery. Among the recommendations, an overhaul
of institutional policies on compensation, career development, and work-life balance is needed.
This study concludes that there is a significant relationship between brain drain and retention
strategies and also this study reiterates that the need for such retention strategies to be enhanced at
UCH, Ibadan, is evident, as great urgency is required in the face of this brain drain among
healthcare workers.
Keywords
JA Political science (General), JZ International relations