Health workers’ preferences and policy interventions to improve retention in rural areas in Thailand

Type Report
Title Health workers’ preferences and policy interventions to improve retention in rural areas in Thailand
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2011
URL http://crehs.lshtm.ac.uk/thai_cohort_22Jul.pdf
Abstract
The study employed a prospective cohort study design. It included255 doctors serving in
years one to three from nine provinces and 342 newly graduated nurses from four nursing colleges.
Job preferences were assessed using a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE). This consisted of asking
doctors and nurses to indicate their preferences between 2hypothetical jobs, one in a rural and one
in an urban area. For doctors, each job was characterized by seven attributes: hospital size, location,
salary, overtime work, specialty training opportunities, presence of consultants and career
promotion. For nurses, each job was made up of seven characteristics: facility type, salary, type of
housing provided, medical benefit package, training opportunities, career promotion and workplace
management style. A self-administered questionnaire was also used to collect socio-demographic
information. Experimental economic games were used to assess the altruism of health workers.
Lastly, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with selected students, nurses and
doctors to provide a more detailed understanding of the responses.

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