Abstract:

Background: Kenya continues to experience a growing gap of health workers at all levels of service provision within its health infrastructure. As a consequence, this gap is a big impediment in her quest to achieve the health objectives and the global Sustainable development goals. This study examines factors influencing retention of health workers in primary health care facilities.

Methods: A cross sectional study design using semi - structured questionnaire tools involving 85 healthcare workers of different cadres at government rural health facilities was used in the County. Descriptive data analysis was used to profile the characteristics of the respondents; while Chi square tests were used to determine the differences between respondents who had stayed at their working station for at least two years. Multinomial Logistic Regression was used to analyse each factor that was considered significant in determining whether healthcare personnel stayed or left.

Results: Age, duration of working, and ability to balance work and personal life, fair evaluation, supervisor’s competence, manageable work load and availability of equipment and logistics were statistically associated with whether healthcare workers would leave or continued staying at their current work stations.

Conclusion: The results show that financial incentives are not the only factors in retention of health workers. The above factors need to be addressed in retention strategies for the retention of health workers at primary health facilities.

Keywords: Retention, Motivation, Primary Health care, Benefits, Leavers, Stayers, Incentives.

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