Recruitment & Retention of Doctors in Rural Areas in the Middle East; UAE & Egypt

Summary

Background:   50 % of worldwide population live in   rural areas with less governmental services specially in healthcare service, health care            workers presents 10%  of governmental employees, generally these 50           % of population are served with less than 25% of total number of doctors & healthcare providers that’s why rural children suffer more health problems than urban, that was red flag for WHO to       assign  a recommendation in      2010 to solve the issue of bad distribution of doctors &           health  care providers between rural & urban areas    that was based   on many studies done   in developed     countries in Europe, America   , Australia & Asia, but there was         no studies done or very few      in the       middle  east.

Methods and Results: This research    is applied qualitative    exploratory research. Is applied as it is searching to solve an existing problem which is decreasing number of health care providers in remote areas. Qualitative as it is dealing with survey & numbers & exploratory as it is interview questionnaire survey to find why doctors don’t prefer remote areas to work in & what will motivate them       to work rurally & stay  there,   doctors’ sample were divided    in between two different countries in middle east, one is high economic level country; UAE & low economic country; Egypt.

Results: almost 70 % of doctors in middle east have    rural experience and half of them agree to work rurally but they asked for good financial compensation with different styles of work schedule hopping to have better work-family          life balance, several factors play a role on doctors decision as having rural background , presence of compulsory service , rural scholarships & presence of rural training program , the decision to take their families with them depend on facilities like schooling , presence of entertainment & shopping places.

Conclusion: special strategies should be followed to recruit & maintain doctors working in rural areas starting as early as choosing students with rural background , providing scholarships with compulsory rural service , providing special rural training programs with special salary scale with different work styles compatible with different doctor’s needs & circumstances & the role of government to improve life in rural areas improving all facilities like schools , recreational centres & shopping places to make it attractive for families.