Commitments, Conditions and Corruption: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Physician Recruitment and Retention Experiences in Indonesia

Farah C. Noya, Sandra E. Carr and Sandra C. Thompson
Additional contact information
Farah C. Noya: Division of Health Professions Education, School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Sandra E. Carr: Division of Health Professions Education, School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Sandra C. Thompson: Western Australian Centre for Rural Health, The University of Western Australia, Geraldton, WA 6530, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: Complex factors influence physicians’ decisions to remain in rural and remote (RR) practice. Indonesia, particularly, has various degrees of poor governance contributing to physicians’ decisions to stay or leave RR practice. However, there is a paucity of literature exploring the phenomenon from the perspective of Indonesian RR physicians. This study explores physicians’ lived experiences working and living in Indonesian RR areas and the motivations that underpin their decisions to remain in the RR settings. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was utilised to explore the experiences of 26 consenting voluntary participants currently working in the RR areas of Maluku Province. A focus group discussion was undertaken with post-interns ( n = 7), and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with junior ( n = 9) and senior physicians ( n = 10) working in district hospitals and RR health centres. Corruption was identified as an overarching theme that was referred to in all of the derived themes. Corruption adversely affected physicians’ lives, work and careers and influenced their motivation to remain working in Indonesia’s RR districts. Addressing the RR workforce shortage requires political action to reduce corruptive practice in the districts’ governance. Establishing a partnership with regional medical schools could assist in implementing evidence-based strategies to improve workforce recruitment, development, and retention of the RR medical workforce.

Keywords: medical workforce shortage; phenomenology; rural and remote; recruitment and retention; unethical governance; work motivation and satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5518/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5518/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5518-:d:807324

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().