Socio-economic characteristics and career intentions of the WiSDOM health professional cohort in South Africa

Abstract

BackgroundThe human resources for health (HRH) crisis and dearth of research on the health labour market in South Africa informed the WiSDOM (Wits longitudinal Study to Determine the Operation of the labour Market among its health professional graduates) cohort study. The study aims to generate new knowledge on the career choices and job location decisions of health professionals in South Africa.MethodsWiSDOM is a prospective longitudinal cohort study. During 2017, the first cohort for each of eight professional groups was established: clinical associates, dentists, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, oral hygienists, pharmacists and physiotherapists. These cohorts will be followed up for 15 years. For the baseline data collection, each final year health professional student completed an electronic self-administered questionnaire (SAQ), after providing informed consent. The SAQ included information on: demographic characteristics; financing of training; reasons for choosing their profession; and their career intentions. We used STATA® 14 to analyse the data.ResultsWe obtained an 89.5% response rate and 511 final year health professional students completed the baseline survey. The mean age of all participants was 24.1 years; 13.1% were born in a rural area; 11.9% and 8.0% completed their primary and secondary schooling in a rural area respectively. The health professional students came from relatively privileged backgrounds: 45.0% had attended a private school, the majority of their fathers (77.1%) had completed tertiary education, and 69.1% of their mothers had completed tertiary education. Students with higher socio-economic status (SES Quintiles 3–5) made up a larger proportion of the occupational therapists (77.8%), physiotherapists (71.7%), doctors (66.7%), and dentists (64.7%). In contrast, individuals from SES Quintiles 1 and 2 were over-represented among the clinical associates (75.0%), oral hygienists (71.4%), nurses (61.9%), and pharmacists (56.9%). Almost one quarter (24.9%) of cohort members indicated that they had partly financed their studies through loans. Although 86.3% of all cohort members indicated that they plan to stay in their chosen profession, this ranged from 43.2% for clinical associates to 100% for dentists.ConclusionsWiSDOM has generated new knowledge on health professional graduates of a leading South African University. The results have implications for university selection criteria and national health workforce planning.

Life satisfaction, life quality, and leisure satisfaction in health professionals

“…[31][32][33] Health professionals also face low unemployment rates and are paid relatively higher incomes. 34 These may constitute important factors that increase the socioeconomic status of healthcare professionals and increase their life satisfaction, life quality, and leisure satisfaction levels.…”

Public vs. private job dilemma: Influencing factors in career selection for university graduates

“…An individual’s career choices are influenced by a range of factors, such as personal characteristics, socioeconomic background, social and cultural expectations, and preferences. Studies showed that educational self-efficacy, enthusiasm for community betterment and financial returns along with personal characteristics, i.e., gender, academic grades, and socioeconomic status (SES) and family expectations significantly influenced the career choice [ 17 – 19 ]. Besides, geographical location and cultural variation also determine the career choice of individuals [ 20 – 22 ].…”

Implementing active surveillance for TB—The views of managers in a resource limited setting, South Africa

“…Current findings indicate this service is provided by some CHWs working for NGOs. The services provided by WBPHCOTs may also be more cost-effective because they are more comprehensive and integrated services, with active TB surveillance only one of the activities during a household visit [ 47 – 49 ]. As opposed to contracting with CHWs and NGOs to deliver TB specific services.…”

“…NGOs may also be well established, tend to only employ CHWs derived from the local community and have more supportive supervision. The WBPHCOTs are often newly established, may employ CHWs from outside the community and struggle to recruit and retain team leaders [ 49 ]. It certainly makes little sense to duplicate services in the same community.…”