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Health Worker Satisfaction and Motivation: An Empirical Study of Incomes, Allowances and Working Conditions in Zambia

2012; Canadian Center of Science and Education; Volume: 7; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5539/ijbm.v7n10p37

1833-8119

Jeff Gow, Gavin George, Sylvia Mwamba, L. Ingombe, Given Mutinta,

Healthcare Policy and Management

Health worker salaries in Zambia are low by any standard. In recent times there have been real reductions in thesalaries of health workers. This has resulted in significant attrition in the public sector as health workers areattracted to the private sector or leave Zambia entirely, leaving a large deficit in public sector health workers. Inthis study we examine the relationship between health worker incomes and their satisfaction and motivation.Cross-sectional data collection was undertaken using both quantitative and qualitative methods. A refined surveyinstrument was used for the quantitative data method. Document review (past and current records) was employedfor the qualitative method. Data was collected in three regions that represent extremes in overall remunerationand benefits. Lusaka represented the favourable area while Monze and Nyimba represented less favourable areasfor study in Zambia.There are hefty disparities between different health workers. There are also enormous salary differentials for thesame workers between the public and private sectors. These salary differentials explain the experience of publicto private “traffic” of health workers as well as casual private sector work by public sector health workers. Inaddition, there are negligible efforts by government to reduce the benefits gaps among key public health cadres.The low incomes received by public health workers in Zambia have many negative implications: it begetsabsenteeism, results in low output, poor quality health care, and the departure of health workers to the privatesector and overseas.