Assessing the factors influencing high turnover amongst doctors and professional nurses in eThekwini Health District.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
Employee turnover is a widely used term in business circles. Most of the researchers focus on the causes of employee turnover but little work has been executed regarding the examining of the sources of employee turnover, the effects and the advisement of different strategies which can be employed by administrators in various organisations to ensure that there exists employee continuity to enhance organisational competitiveness. In order for this objective to be realised, South Africa need doctors and nurses and other related healthcare practitioners. The reality is that public sector institutions are losing many healthcare professionals on a regular basis. In other words, there is a high turnover rate of healthcare professionals. Service delivery of the patients' health is compromised as a result. The main aim of the study was to examine the sources, causes and effects of the employee turnover of doctors and professional nurses in the eThekwini health district. A qualitative case-study design was adopted whereby semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the sampled participants. The collected data was then arranged, categorised and analysed accordingly using thematic analysis. The empirical survey revealed that healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses have a major role in combating the scourge of the said issue. The challenge is that there is an acute shortage of doctors and nurses which has exposed the KZN Department of Health in terms of the recruitment and retention of this category of human resources. The shortage of doctors and nurses has become a major challenge that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The importance of hiring and retaining healthcare professionals in public sector healthcare facilities cannot be over-emphasised. The conclusion drawn by this study is that strategies on how to reduce employee turnover in organisations must be established. When the job market improves, many employees who have had few opportunities will be looking for and exploring new alternatives. Employee turnover can be very expensive, disruptive and damaging to organisational success. Therefore, key recommendations were made. This, among other factors, is the need for new retention strategies to be developed in order to address the contemporary impasse of the scarcity of the healthcare professionals in question.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.