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Health professionals in Kenya: strategies to expand reach and reduce brain drain of psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Sharon Brownie  and
Elizabeth Oywer
Sharon Brownie
Affiliation:
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Aga Khan University, East Africa, email Sharon.brownie@aku.edu Griffith University, Australia Green Templeton College, Oxford University, UK
Elizabeth Oywer
Affiliation:
Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
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This paper highlights the extent of the brain drain in relation to human resources for health (HRH) that is currently challenging Kenya, and suggests strategies that have the potential to change current working environments and improve HRH retention rates. Governments in partnership with health professional bodies and regulators could improve the working conditions for psychiatrists and mental health nurses: by promoting career choices in mental health; by providing accessible professional development opportunities; and by easing workload pressures by expanding service reach through thoughtfully planned and delivered task-shifting to primary care. While these strategies have the potential to make a significant difference, the evidence suggests a brain drain will continue as long as working conditions remain sub-optimal and global HRH shortages persist.

Type
Thematic Paper
Information
BJPsych International , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 55 - 58
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016

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