Assessment Study On Health Care Workforce Status Of Garissa County In Northeastern Kenya

INTRODUCTIONGarissa County is among the marginalized regions in northeastern Kenya. The majority of the inhabitants are pastro-nomads, Somalis and Muslims with poor health indicators compared to other parts of the country. Some of the contributing factors to such indicators can be attributed to health care workforce in this region. This study therefore, tries to assess several aspects of human resource for health from service provider’s perspective in this region and formulate recommendations to improve the current status.OBJECTIVESThe main objective of study is to assess the health care workforce status and its determinants in Garissa County and further formulate recommendations.METHODOLOGYA cross-sectional survey was conducted by adopting both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collections in Garissa county (Garissa, Lagdera,Fafi and Ijara districts).A convenience sampling was applied and92%of facilities in Lagdera,90%in fafi,79%in Garissa and62%in Ijara districts participated. The target population was government health workers (service providers) and the principal and students of medical training college in Garissa. An English version of anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was developed by improving the questionnaire on rural allied health workforce study. Similarly interviews were conducted with the college principal. Pilot study was done before data collection.149completed questionnaires were received and included in the analysis. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were done. Ethical consideration was also taken into account. SPSS version16was used. RESULTSThere were60.1%male,71.9%married service providers. On cadre,59.2%were nurses, while73.8%were diploma holders. On ethnicity, non-locals (non-Somalis) were78.5%while Christians were leading in the category of religion with76.4%.There is acknowledgment of barriers in discharging duties by73.3%of the health workers in this region. There are more health workers (31.5%) who stagnate in one job group for more than3yrs. and this affects their performance negatively. Over45%of service providers are dissatisfied with their current jobs because of poor leadership, hostile community who are ignorant and illiterate, Poor living conditions, lack of entertainment facilities, poor working conditions and difficulties in carrier development because of the existence of one medical college in this region which offers only nursing courses and enrolls few local students among others. Being from Somali ethnicity OR4.7(95%Cl2.0-11) and health workers who preferred to work in this region because they come from this area OR5.5(95%Cl1.2-24) are more likely to discharge their duties without challenges.CONCLUSIONFor effective health care service, the human resource as well as other components of health system needs to be in the right mix. Both financial and non-financial incentives are needed to attract many locals and non-local health workers from other parts of the country. Community sensitization and improved leadership is also paramount.