Factors affecting job satisfaction and retention of Medical Laboratory Professionals in Ghana

Abstract

Job satisfaction and retention assessments have been widely used to assess employees’ job contentment, affection, and motivation in institutions including the health sector. However, these evaluations are missing in Ghana, particularly among the medical laboratory fraternity. Thus, this study assessed the factors that influence job satisfaction and job retention among medical laboratory professionals in Ghana. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the medical laboratory professionals from August 2022 to September 2022. Out of the 500 questionnaires administered by email and text message, 432 medical laboratory professionals successfully responded to the questionnaires. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed with Stata version 16.0. Statistical significance was considered at a P-value of less than 0.50. A total job dissatisfaction rate of 66.2% was recorded. This was made up of 18.5% very dissatisfied professionals and 47.7% dissatisfied professionals. Most respondents had an imbalanced work and personal life (52.8%). About 59.7% of the professionals had intentions of leaving their jobs. Lack of appreciation (42.8%), respect (36.4%), and recognition (18.5%), lack of safety at work (47.9%), bad relationships with managers (12.7%), poor annual appraisal (21.5%), poor salaries (89.8%), lack of professional autonomy (77.3%), lack of professional development opportunities (77.1%), and lack of staff accommodation (75.5%) resonated as factors of poor job satisfaction. Lack of appreciation (52.6%), poor working conditions (57.9%), and a lack of benefits (68.8%) contributed to their attrition tendencies. A broader stakeholder consultation is needed to improve job contentment and motivation among the medical laboratory fraternity in Ghana.