The study examines perceived determinants of brain drain among mental healthcare professionals in
specialist health care facilities in Benin City of Nigeria. A cross-section descriptive research design was adopted using two facilities. Target population was 299 health care professionals from two facilities. The study population consisted of 207 selected by multistage sampling technique in three stages. The instrument for data collection was the brain drain prediction scale developed by the researcher and validated. Data were collected through questionnaire and analyzed through
percentages, frequencies, and chi-square statistics. The socio demographic characteristics of this study reveal that majority of the respondents 164(79.2%) are from Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu. This result further reveals that the migration tendencies among mental healthcare professionals is very high and the perceived determinants of migration tendencies among respondents include enhancement of accommodation 139(67.1%) with p =.000, better educational opportunities for children p =.000, better transportation allowances, 108(52.2%) with p-value =.000, and better disengagement/severance packages 97(46.9%). Two hypotheses were tested and findings show that there is a significant association between professional development and migration intention. Also, there is a significant association between mental health care technologies and migration tendency. Therefore, the study recommends that the conditions of service and other incentives should be improved to enable retention of mental health care specialist personnel and suggests that studies should still be carried out on brain drain issues using other methods for data analysis.
- ISABU | AUGUSTINA | CHIKAODILI | augustinaisabu@gmail.com | 08064359750
- brain-drain, mental health care, health care, migration tendencies
- Lautech Paper 4-c9ac46fd
