Improving health workforce recruitment and retention in rural and remote regions of Nigeria

Abstract

Sub-optimal leadership and management at all levels of the public health sector, poverty, low motivation, inadequacy of health facilities and medications for effective delivery of health care, inadequacy of funding to employ qualified health staff, and primitive living conditions constitute major disincentives for skilled health workers to work in the rural and remote regions of Nigeria, and for declining productivity among existing health workers. Practical interventions to encourage recruitment and retention, and to assure improvements in the quality and popularity of appropriately designed training programs for health professionals needed in rural and remote regions of Nigeria are discussed. A need is highlighted for adequate planning and resource allocation to enable a systematic overhaul of encumbrances currently impacting on Nigeria's rural and remote health system. Lessons that may be adapted from successful rural and remote health workforce training and recruitment strategies in Tanzania are discussed.