Healthcare Professional Retention During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Literature Review And Conceptual Framework
Keywords:
healthcare professional retention, healthcare professional satisfaction, Covid-19, pandemic, healthcare professional dissatisfaction, human resources for healthAbstract
The healthcare professional (HCP) as a human resource from time immemorial has contributed to providing care for patients. As the years went by, healthcare innovations were introduced to augment the quality of healthcare delivery across the globe. This development may have ruffled the number and duties of the healthcare workforce but couldn’t erase the importance of human resources in professionally handling and monitoring procedures undertaken by these innovations. The unprecedented onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the flow of healthcare delivery on several levels. HCPs who serve as driving forces for the delivery of care to patients had to put in extra work in curbing the transmission of the virus. This didn’t only affect their professional lives but also their personal and social lives. This called for Human Resources for Health (HRH) and healthcare management to ensure the well being and satisfaction of HCPs to subsequently ensure their retention especially when they are needed most in this pandemic. This study, therefore, reviewed the published literature on the retention of HCPs during the pandemic and developed a conceptual framework that elaborated on the factors that inhibited their well-being, satisfaction, and subsequent retention. Our review also discussed the recommendations of authors from the literature reviewed that will be useful for augmenting HCP retention in similar future pandemics.
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