Will they stay or will they go? Putting theory into practice to guide effective workforce retention mechanisms

Policy makers in healthcare in all countries are faced with challenges of designing and implementing strategies that will achieve three major and essential goals: produce enough health workers for a cost-effective skills mix to deliver high-quality care; attract trained health workers into the workforce; and deploy health workers where they are most needed and keep them there. Yet these apparently straightforward strategies are seldom wholly successful, and there is little clear evidence to guide the frustrated policy maker. This paper explores the reasons why it may be so difficult to come up with strategies that guarantee success and looks at what we do know about attracting, retaining and motivating health workers to get them and keep them working productively where they are most needed.