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Human Resources for Health
Published in: Human Resources for Health 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research

The public sector nursing workforce in Kenya: a county-level analysis

Authors: Mabel Wakaba, Patrick Mbindyo, Jacob Ochieng, Rose Kiriinya, Jim Todd, Agnes Waudo, Abdisalan Noor, Chris Rakuom, Martha Rogers, Mike English

Published in: Human Resources for Health | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

Kenya’s human resources for health shortage is well documented, yet in line with the new constitution, responsibility for health service delivery will be devolved to 47 new county administrations. This work describes the public sector nursing workforce likely to be inherited by the counties, and examines the relationships between nursing workforce density and key indicators.

Methods

National nursing deployment data linked to nursing supply data were used and analyzed using statistical and geographical analysis software. Data on nurses deployed in national referral hospitals and on nurses deployed in non-public sector facilities were excluded from main analyses. The densities and characteristics of the public sector nurses across the counties were obtained and examined against an index of county remoteness, and the nursing densities were correlated with five key indicators.

Results

Of the 16,371 nurses in the public non-tertiary sector, 76% are women and 53% are registered nurses, with 35% of the nurses aged 40 to 49 years. The nursing densities across counties range from 1.2 to 0.08 per 1,000 population. There are statistically significant associations of the nursing densities with a measure of health spending per capita (P value = 0.0028) and immunization rates (P value = 0.0018). A higher county remoteness index is associated with explaining lower female to male ratio of public sector nurses across counties (P value <0.0001).

Conclusions

An overall shortage of nurses (range of 1.2 to 0.08 per 1,000) in the public sector countrywide is complicated by mal-distribution and varying workforce characteristics (for example, age profile) across counties. All stakeholders should support improvements in human resources information systems and help address personnel shortages and mal-distribution if equitable, quality health-care delivery in the counties is to be achieved.
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Metadata
Title
The public sector nursing workforce in Kenya: a county-level analysis
Authors
Mabel Wakaba
Patrick Mbindyo
Jacob Ochieng
Rose Kiriinya
Jim Todd
Agnes Waudo
Abdisalan Noor
Chris Rakuom
Martha Rogers
Mike English
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Human Resources for Health / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1478-4491
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-12-6

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