Overview
This research project tracks nursing graduates over time to explore issues of labour force mobility and job choices in South Africa and India.
South Africa
A cohort of 377 new nursing graduates was established in South Africa as a Consortium for Research for Equitable Health Systems (CREHS) research project and maintained 98% follow-up after two years.
The current project continues to monitor the job choices of the nursing cohort for a further six years (2012-2017). Specifically, it will analyse the mobility patterns of cohort members’ with regard to where they work, when they move, where they move to, and the reasons for the decisions.
The research also aims to identify effective, practical interventions to improve health worker retention in rural areas and public sector services by evaluating the influence of different incentives on job location and career choices.
The infographics below show the characteristics of nurses participating in the cohort study in South Africa.
The cohort study also revealed which nurses are most likely to stay in the public sector.
Infographic: tracking nurses job choices in South Africa
India
In 2014 researchers established a new cohort of nurses graduating from private and public nursing training institutions in Tamil Nadu State.
Publications including key outputs from CREHS
Journal publication (2014): Pro-social preferences and self-selection into rural jobs: evidence from South African nurses
RESYST Working Paper 3 (2013): Pro-social preferences and self-selection into rural jobs: evidence from South African nurses
Research report: Policy interventions to improve health worker retention in rural areas: Results from the CREHS Cohort Study in South Africa
Policy brief: Nurses' attitudes towards living and working in rural areas: initial findings from the CREHS cohort study in South Africa
Journal publication: Policy interventions that attract nurses to rural areas: a multicountry discrete choice experiment
RESYST Working Paper 10 (2016): A Longitudinal Study of the Job Choices of a Cohort of South African Nurses to inform Human Resource Policy Interventions
Key findings sheet: How do we train, support and retain resilient nurses in underserved areas?
Infographic: tracking nurses job choices in South Africa
