Retention of health workers in rural Sierra Leone: findings from life histories

Table 1 What staff like and dislike about their jobs in order of frequency reported (comparing rural with urban respondents)

Motivating factors		Demotivating factors
Urban	Rural	Urban	Rural
Being effective in their role	Community service	Difficult working conditions	Difficult working conditions
Financial incentives^a	Being effective in their role	Limited financial incentives and benefits	Limited training opportunities and lack of career progression
Improved working conditions^a	Financial incentives	Poor management (tensions in the workplace)	Limited financial incentives and benefits
Community service^a	Training opportunities	Limited training opportunities and lack of career progression	Poor management (tensions in the workplace)
Training opportunities^a	Religion	Political interference	Separation from family
		Strained relationships with the community^a	Strained relationships with the community^a
		Poor retention of staff	Insecurity^a
			Political interference
			Poor retention of staff
			Challenges particular to rural postings, such as length of rural posting, lack of accommodation, high workload and long working hours

ISSN: 1478-4491