Lao People's Democratic Republic

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Author: Jaskiewicz W, Phathammavong O, Vangkonevilay P, Paphassarang C, Phachanh IT, and Wurts L

Project: CapacityPlus

Description: This report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE), using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit, in May 2011, which constitute an important input to the policy-making process toward development of a national strategy to increase health worker attraction and retention in rural and remote areas of Lao PDR.

Download

Countries Lao People's Democratic Republic

Projects CapacityPlus

Topics Health workforce development

Publisher IntraHealth International

Differences in Preferences for Rural Job Postings between Nursing Students and Practicing Nurses: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment in Lao People's Democratic Republic

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Differences in Preferences for Rural Job Postings between Nursing Students and Practicing Nurses: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment in Lao People's Democratic Republic 2013 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Author: Rockers PC, Jaskiewicz W, Kruk ME, Phathammavong O, Vangkonevilay P, Paphassarang C, Phachanh I, Wurts L, and Tulenko K

Description: A discrete choice experiment was conducted to investigate preferences for job characteristics among nursing students and practicing nurses to understand whether differing policies may be appropriate for each group. Data were collected from 256 nursing students and 249 practicing nurses. For both groups, choice of job posting was strongly influenced by salary and direct promotion to permanent staff. As compared to nursing students, practicing nurses had significantly lower preference for housing allowance and housing provision as well as lower preference for provision of transportation for work and personal use. Findings suggest that it may be important to differentiate between recruitment and retention policies when addressing human resources for health challenges in developing countries, such as Lao PDR.

Download

Countries Lao People's Democratic Republic

Topics Health workforce development Measurement & Analytics Nursing & Midwifery 2020 Nurses

Publisher Human Resources for Health journal

Supporting Country-Led Efforts to Recruit and Retain Health Workers and Improve Productivity

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Supporting Country-Led Efforts to Recruit and Retain Health Workers and Improve Productivity 2015 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Authors: Jaskiewicz W, Deussom R

Description: CapacityPlus built the capacity of national human resources for health (HRH) leaders and managers in Uganda, Laos, and Malawi to use the project’s retention and productivity tools to generate evidence and inform decisions to influence policy-making and improve the availability of services through increased staffing and distribution.

Download

Countries Malawi Uganda Lao People's Democratic Republic

Publisher IntraHealth International

Series Legacy Technical Brief #4

Motivating Health Workers to Serve in Rural Lao PDR

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 13:13:34 +0000

Motivating Health Workers to Serve in Rural Lao PDR Anonymous (not verified) September 14, 2016

September 07, 2011

Suppose you’ve just graduated from nursing school in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Would you accept a post at a health center so remote that getting there requires a bus trip to Vietnam and a long walk back across the border? You may have one other colleague there, but otherwise you’ll be on your own. It’s unclear how long you’ll have to remain, or what your career options may be. Or would you prefer to stay in the capital?

“I think the health workers don’t want to go [to rural posts] after they graduate because they don’t feel confident,” says Dr. Chanthakhath Papassarang, deputy chief of the Education and Training Division, Department of Organization and Personnel in the Ministry of Health. “If they meet with a problem they don’t know who to ask. Another thing is that the conditions of living there [are challenging] and the environment for working is very poor.”

It’s not surprising that health workers are concentrated in cities, but more than 80% of Laotians make their homes in rural areas. In the past, says Dr. Phouthone Vangkonevilay, deputy director general of personnel in the Ministry of Health, “the MOH had the intention to provide some incentives for staff in rural areas…but I think [it was] not enough.”

Determining health workers’ preferences

The Lao government needed to figure out the most effective way to increase access to care, working with limited resources. In response, IntraHealth International’s global project, CapacityPlus, and the World Health Organization teamed up with the Ministry of Health to assess health workers’ preferences, using CapacityPlus’s Rapid DCE Tool.

DCE stands for discrete choice experiment, a powerful research method to determine the relative importance workers place on different characteristics related to employment options. The Rapid DCE Tool contains step-by-step directions and sample formats that countries can adapt to carry out a retention survey specific to their context.

Health workers and/or students are presented with a series of questions, each containing two sample job postings with various attributes or incentives—such as a salary of a certain amount, improved quality of the health facility, tuition support, accelerated career promotion, opportunities for professional development, or a housing allowance, among others—and asked to select the job they would prefer.

Their choices reveal which trade-offs they’re willing to make to work in rural areas based on what they would receive—in short, which incentives matter the most. The results are used to create evidence-based incentive packages to attract and retain health workers in rural areas.

Some surprising results

“It is interesting to know what people want,” comments Dr. Outavong Phathammavong, project assistant at WHO/Lao PDR. “Before we implemented the survey [to 483 health workers and 970 students in three provinces] many people said, ‘We don’t need to do the research. We already know: we need money!’” They assumed that salary was the only issue. “Once I see the results, [I realize that] money is not the issue. Instead, career promotion and continuing education is the most important thing.”

Developing an effective and affordable package

Following a final report and recommendations, the next step is to cost the various options using iHRIS Retain, an Open Source retention intervention costing tool jointly developed by CapacityPlus and the WHO. Then, says Dr. Phathammavong, “we will know the most appropriate incentive package for the health workers in Lao PDR.”

“I think this information is very useful to improve our policy and [learn] how to retain staff to work in remote areas,” concludes Dr. Papassarang.

A version of this piece was originally published as CapacityPlus Voices #8, on the CapacityPlus website.

Lao People's Democratic Republic CapacityPlus Health Workers