Name: Gloria
Chelang’at Kitur
Registration No.: W82/89462/2016
Fellowship:
Program Management
Institutional Affiliation: Siaya County Referral Hospital
ABSTRACT
The HIV prevalence
in Siaya County is 24.8 percent (4.2 times higher than the national prevalence)
according to the Kenya HIV Estimates 2015. It is estimated that by the end of
2015, a total of 126,411 people were living with HIV in the County. There is a
need for improvement in the County’s cascade of care to achieve the unmet gaps
of the UNAIDS 95:95:95 targets in identification, linkage, and viral
suppression. Timely HIV diagnosis, optimal linkage and retention to care for
persons diagnosed with HIV, increased coverage of ART and viral suppression can
only be achieved with a competent Healthcare workforce. The Kenya Healthcare
system however, experiences an acute shortage of qualified and competent Human
Resources for Health (HRH) in addition to their uneven distribution both
geographically and within facilities. Focusing on Siaya County Referral
Hospital (SCRH), this project sought to determine the Healthcare Human Resource
Capacity Building Initiatives Influencing Sustainability of HIV/AIDS Services
at Siaya County Referral Hospital. Project objectives included: to identify the
human resource capacity gaps in terms of knowledge, skills, competencies and
numbers; to identify the human resource capacity building initiatives currently
being applied at Siaya County Referral Hospital; to determine the influence of
terms of engagement, remuneration, performance appraisal, work environment and
turnover intent of staff; and to identify the program level challenges faced by
development partners all influencing sustainability of HIV/AIDS services at
Siaya County Referral Hospital. A sample of forty SCRH staff, four hospital
executives and two program officers was drawn. Questionnaires and Interview
Schedules were used to collect primary data for the baseline survey. The survey
findings revealed the major human resource capacity gap was staff numbers with
specific skills and competencies. The widely used human resource capacity
building initiative at SCRH was formal training and on-job training/mentorship.
The terms of engagement, remuneration, performance appraisal and work
environment greatly influenced the staff turnover intent and ultimately
employee satisfaction. Lack of sustainability plans for the HIV programs at
SCRH was a major challenge. It was therefore recommended that an SCRH Human
Resource Capacity Building Committee be established whose mandate, in
conjunction with the SCRH Management Team, Siaya County Health Management Team
and the HIV Program Development Partner, would be to develop a HR Needs
Assessment Report, a HR Capacity Building Plan, a Staff Engagement and
Performance Status Report which would guide the development and implementation
of a HIV Program Sustainability Plan for SCRH. The project could eventually be
rolled out to the sub-county hospitals in Siaya County as well as other
facilities offering HIV clinical services in Nyanza region and Kenya at large.
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