Retention of nurses in rural Nepal: how can health sector decentralisation help?

Project Summary

Recruiting and retaining Staff Nurse and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives with Skilled Birth Attendant training in rural areas is an essential step towards increasing maternal and newborn survival in Nepal.

Recruitment of nurses by health facilities has been identified as a strategy that may encourage locally appropriate recruitment and increase access to maternal health care. Yet the extent of local recruitment and its effect on health service provision is largely unknown.

Our study evaluates the effectiveness of local recruitment of nurses, specifically examining their job satisfaction, motivation, and retention in rural areas.

Key Project Information

Dates: 2012-2014

Principal Investigator: Dr Joanna Morrison

Partner: Nick Simons Institute

Location: Nepal

Funding: Nick Simons Institute

Contact: joanna.morrison@ucl.ac.uk

Research Team

Dr Joanna Morrison
Dr Jolene Skordis-Worrall
Dr Neha Batura
Rita Thapa
Regina Basnyat

Publications

Batura, N., Skordis-Worrall, J., Thapa, R. et al. Is the Job Satisfaction Survey a good tool to measure job satisfaction amongst health workers in Nepal? Results of a validation analysis. BMC Health Serv Res 16, 308 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1558-4

Morrison, J., Batura, N., Thapa, R. et al. Validating a tool to measure auxiliary nurse midwife and nurse motivation in rural Nepal. Hum Resour Health 13, 30 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-015-0021-7