Policy Options to Attract Nurses to Rural Liberia : Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment
There is major geographic variation in nurse staffing levels in Liberia with the largest shortages in rural areas. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used to test how nurses and certified midwives in Liberia would respond to alternative policie...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/11/13150395/policy-options-attract-nurses-rural-liberia-evidence-discrete-choice-experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13601 |
| Summary: | There is major geographic variation in
nurse staffing levels in Liberia with the largest shortages
in rural areas. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used
to test how nurses and certified midwives in Liberia would
respond to alternative policies being considered by the
ministry of health and social welfare (MOHSW). The DCE
methodology provides a quantitative estimate of how
individuals value different aspects of their job. In Liberia
we focused on six key job attributes: location, total pay,
conditions of equipment, availability of transportation,
availability of housing, and workload. Results were used to
predict the share of nurses and certified midwives who would
accept a job in a rural area under different schemes. Based
on the DCE analysis there are four main actionable
recommendations that emerge for improving recruitment and
retention of nurses and certified midwives in rural areas of
Liberia. First, the MOHSW should consider actively
recruiting students from rural areas and exposing them to
rural work conditions during their training. Second, the
MOHSW should strongly consider increasing pay levels in
rural areas as this is likely to be cost effective. Third,
if for some reason financial bonuses are not feasible, the
MOHSW should consider providing transportation to nurses and
certified midwives in rural areas. Fourth, the MOHSW should
reconsider its housing strategy. Providing newly constructed
housing is not a cost effective policy according to the DCE study. |
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