Health Workers Brain Drain - The Ghanaian Perspective

Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for front-line medical staff in Ghanaian hospitals and other developing nations. According to Herzberg's Two Factor Theory, which was applied in the study, the majority of the studies reviewed demonstrate that there is a brain drain of health professionals from Ghana, which was attributed to motivation and hygiene factors. Since the majority of the studies were conducted in developed nations before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to confirm whether or not these claims are true. As a result, the strength of the evidence may vary depending on the timing and location of the studies. The literature and methodologies of other studies were unrelated to the situation in Ghana because they focused on finding causes rather than solutions to the country's unique problems. Based on these issues, a survey was carried out to determine the variables influencing the brain drain of health professionals in Ghana. The study was a survey with a sample size of 200 respondents from the Greater Accra Region of Ghana and an accessible population of 10500 in various categories of health workers. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used as a statistical tool to analyze the data collected from structured questionnaires and produce descriptive statistics, such as the mean, standard deviation, and ranks from which conclusions could be drawn. According to the study, Ghana is losing the majority of its best health workers to developed countries due to government inaction on issues relating to their working conditions, including low pay, insufficient staff development opportunities, poor equipment replacement policies, political interference at work, high standards of living and subpar housing, and personal reasons. According to the study's findings, healthcare delivery in Ghana, particularly after a deadly pandemic, is negatively impacted by the migration of healthcare professionals from developing to developed countries. According to the study, the government should address the motivational and hygienic issues, as well as the economic push and pull factors that lead many health professionals to look for "greener pastures" abroad, as this trend may persist in the years to come.