Stakeholder Perspectives on Retention Strategies for Rehabilitation Professionals: A Qualitative Study

There is a scarcity of health human resources worldwide. In occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and speech-language pathology (S-LP), attrition and retention issues amplify this situation and contribute to the precarity of health systems. Therefore, we aimed to investigate retention strategies for rehabilitation professionals in Quebec. We present an analysis from individual interviews with rehabilitation professionals and focus groups with stakeholders. We used purposeful sampling (maximum variation approach) to recruit participants from Quebec, Canada. We conducted interviews with 51 OTs, PTs, and S-LPs (2019-2020) and four focus groups with managers, professional education programs, professional associations, and regulatory bodies (2022). Cultural-historical activity theory provided the theoretical scaffolding for these interpretive description studies. Inductive and deductive approaches and constant comparative techniques were used for data analysis. Five sets of retention strategies were developed: (1) ensuring that work aligns with values; (2) improving alignment of work parameters with needs and interests of rehabilitation professionals; (3) modifying physical, social, cultural, and structural aspects of a workplace; (4) addressing how the profession is governed; and (5) offering informal and formal benefits. Multi-systemic retention strategies with intersectoral partnerships were deemed essential to effectively change rehabilitation professionals' work and work environments and to increase public awareness of the added value of rehabilitation professionals. Our findings emphasize a critical need to design targeted, multi-systemic retention strategies to influence the work experiences of rehabilitation professionals and to ensure the availability of OTs, PTs, and S-LPs for present and future rehabilitation needs.