Retaining the health workforce in the healthcare system of Nigeria

Healthcare is centrally positioned within the United Nations 2030 sustainable development agenda under sustainable development goal (SDG 3) which seeks to guarantee healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. 1,2 Central to the attainment of this goal is a motivated human resource for health (HRH) workforce that delivers quality healthcare to the world’s population. 1,2 Human Resources for Health (HRH) has been defined as all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health. 3,4 It refers primarily to the health workforce or health workers. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health workers to be people in the formal and informal sector who are engaged in the promotion, protection or improvement in population health. 5 The health system comprises of activities with the primary goal of improving health. The WHO recognizes HRH as one of the six main building blocks of the health system which also includes finance, services, technologies, information and governance. 5,6 Human resource is considered to be the heart of the health system in any country and can be described as the most important component of the healthcare system. 2,4,5,6 The health workforce is thus the cornerstone of every health system, and is critical to the provision of good quality health services, improving population health, ensuring universal health coverage and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. 2,7 The WHO emphasizes that health systems can only function well when they have sufficient, well-trained, competent, responsive, motivated, productive and fairly distributed health staff. 4