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.