Abstract
Background
Health professionals’ motivation reflects the interaction between health professionals and their work environment. It can potentially affect the provision of health services; however, this important attribute of the workplace climate in public hospitals is not usually given serious attention to the desired level. For this reason, the authors of this study have assessed the level of motivation of health professionals and associated factors in public hospitals of West Amhara, Northwest Ethiopia.
Methods
A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted in eight public hospitals of West Amhara from June 1 to July 30, 2013. A total of 304 health professionals were included in this study. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20. The reliability of the instrument was assessed through Cronbach’s α. Factor scores were generated for the items found to represent the scales (eigenvalue greater than one in varimax rotation) used in the measurement of the variables. The scores were further analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, t-tests, Pearson’s correlation, and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. The cut-off point for the regression analysis to determine significance was set at β (95% confidence interval, P<0.05).
Results
Mean motivation scores (as the percentage of maximum scale scores) were 58.6% for the overall motivation score, 71.0% for the conscientiousness scale, 52.8% for the organizational commitment scale, 58.3% for the intrinsic motivation scale, and 64.0% for organizational burnout scale. Professional category, age, type of the hospital, nonfinancial motivators like performance evaluation and management, staffing and work schedule, staff development and promotion, availability of necessary resources, and ease of communication were found to be strong predictors of health worker motivation. Across the hospitals and professional categories, health workers’ overall level of motivation with absolute level of compensation was not significantly associated with their overall level of motivation.
Conclusion
The strongest drivers of all motivation dimensions were found to be nonfinancial human resource management tools, so policy makers and health workforce stake holders should focus on these tools to alleviate motivation problems.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the study participants and the CEOs of the respective hospitals. The study was financially supported by the Jimma University, College of Public Health and Medical Sciences.
Author contributions
ZW designed the study, participated in data collection, analysis, interpretation, and write-up, drafted the manuscript, and critically revised the manuscript. YE participated in study design, analysis and interpretation, and critically revised the manuscript. MW participated in study design, analysis and interpretation, and critically revised the manuscript. FW participated in data collection, analysis, interpretation, drafted the manuscript, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.