Discrete Choice Experiment

Application of Discrete Choice Experiments to Identify Health Workers’ Employment Preferences

david — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 19:21:23 +0000

Author's name:

Akiko Maeda

February 2014 (All day)

Application of Discrete Choice Experiments to Identify Health Workers' Employment Preferences

This presentation guided an interactive roundtable discussion at the CapacityPlus knowledge-sharing and dissemination event, Supporting Country-Led Efforts to Recruit and Retain Health Workers and Improve Their Productivity, held on February 18, 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Net Costs of Health Worker Rural Incentive Packages: An Example from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

david — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 13:23:58 +0000

Author's name:

Eric Keuffel, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Chanthakhath Pharm Paphassarang, and Kate Tulenko

September 2013 (All day)

Medical Care

Many developing countries are examining whether to institute incentive packages that increase the share of health workers who opt to locate in rural settings; however, uncertainty exists with respect to the expected net cost (or benefit) from these packages. CapacityPlus utilized findings from discrete choice experiment surveys applied to students training to be health professionals and costing analyses in Lao People’s Democratic Republic to model the anticipated effect of incentive packages on new worker location decisions and direct costs. In this example, incentive packages that do not invest in capital-intensive components generally should produce larger net benefits. Combining discrete choice experiment surveys, costing surveys, and cost-benefit analysis methods may be replicated by other developing countries to calculate whether health worker incentive packages are viable policy options.

Differences in Preferences for Rural Job Postings between Nursing Students and Practicing Nurses: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment in Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:11:58 +0000

Author's name:

Peter C. Rockers, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Margaret E. Kruk, Outavong Phathammavong, Phouthone Vangkonevilay, Chanthakhath Paphassarang, Inpong Thong Phachanh, Laura Wurts, and Kate Tulenko

May 2013 (All day)

Human Resources for Health

A discrete choice experiment was conducted to investigate preferences for job characteristics among nursing students and practicing nurses to understand whether differing policies may be appropriate for each group. Data were collected from 256 nursing students and 249 practicing nurses. For both groups, choice of job posting was strongly influenced by salary and direct promotion to permanent staff. As compared to nursing students, practicing nurses had significantly lower preference for housing allowance and housing provision as well as lower preference for provision of transportation for work and personal use. Findings suggest that it may be important to differentiate between recruitment and retention policies when addressing human resources for health challenges in developing countries, such as Lao PDR.

User Guide with Case Studies: How to Conduct a Discrete Choice Experiment for Health Workforce Recruitment and Retention in Remote and Rural Areas

david — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:26:51 +0000

Author's name:

the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and CapacityPlus

February 2013 (All day)

Discrete Choice Experiment User Guide

Understanding why health workers want or don’t want to take posts and remain in remote and rural areas is a prerequisite to formulating appropriate policy responses to the shortage of health workers in these areas. Building on the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention, this user guide proposes an innovative methodology, the discrete choice experiment (DCE), to measure the strength of health workers’ preferences and trade-offs related to different job characteristics that can influence their decision to take up rural postings. The user guide offers step-by-step advice on the application of DCE to identify policy interventions appropriate to a particular country context. The guide is the product of close collaboration among three agencies—the World Bank, the WHO, and USAID/CapacityPlus—and represents their shared commitment to supporting policy-relevant research on critical topics related to human resources for health.

Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit: Designing Evidence-Based Incentives for Health Workers

Carol Bales — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:37:13 +0000

Author's name:

Wanda Jaskiewicz, Rachel Deussom, Laura Wurts, and George Mgomella

December 2014 (All day)

Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit (English and French)

The Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit is designed to help countries determine what would motivate health workers to accept and remain in rural posts. It builds on the World Health Organization global policy recommendations for rural retention and is based on the discrete choice experiment (DCE), a powerful research method that identifies the trade-offs professionals are willing to make between specific job characteristics and determines their preferences for various incentive packages, including the probability of accepting a post in a rural facility. Employing a simplified version of the DCE methodology, the toolkit guides HR managers through the survey process to quickly assess health students’ and health workers’ motivational preferences to accept a position and continue working in underserved facilities. The results can be used to create evidence-based incentive packages that are appropriate within a country’s health labor market.

Preferences for Working in Rural Clinics among Trainee Health Professionals in Uganda: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:04:13 +0000

Author's name:

Peter C. Rockers, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Laura Wurts, Margaret E. Kruk, George S. Mgomella, Francis Ntalazi, and Kate Tulenko

July 2012 (All day)

BMC Health Services Research

In low-income countries, failure to attract and retain health workers in rural areas reduces population access to health services and undermines facility performance, resulting in poor health outcomes. This article in BMC Health Services Research presents findings from CapacityPlus’s study on preferences for job characteristics among final-year medical, nursing, pharmacy, and laboratory students at select universities in Uganda. The findings contribute to mounting evidence that salary is not the only important factor health workers consider when deciding where to work.

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences

Sarah Dwyer — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:34:49 +0000

Author's name:

Wanda Jaskiewicz, Outavong Phathammavong, Phouthone Vangkonevilay, Chanthakhath Paphassarang, Inpong Thong Phachanh, and Laura Wurts

January 2012 (All day)

Technical Report of DCE in Lao PDR

This technical report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Ministry of Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization and CapacityPlus, using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit. The DCE surveyed health professional students and health workers practicing in rural provinces to investigate their motivational preferences for potential strategies to increase attraction and retention in the country’s rural and remote settings.

Motiver les prestataires de soins pour mieux desservir les populations rurales en République démocratique populaire du Laos

Sarah Dwyer — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:46:54 +0000

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer

September 2011 (All day)

Échos 8

Les docteurs Chanthakhath Papassarang, Phouthone Vangkonevilay et Outavong Phathammavong expliquent comment évaluer les préférences des agents de santé afin de déterminer les mesures d’incitation les plus efficaces pour faciliter la prestation de services en milieu rural.

Motivating Health Workers to Serve in Rural Lao PDR

Sarah Dwyer — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:57:31 +0000

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer

September 2011 (All day)

CapacityPlus Voices #8

Dr. Chanthakhath Papassarang, Dr. Phouthone Vangkonevilay, and Dr. Outavong Phathammavong describe an effort to assess health workers’ preferences in order to determine the most effective incentives for rural service. Also available in French.

Retención del personal de salud: metodología rápida para desarrollar paquetes de incentivos basados en la evidencia

Sarah Dwyer — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:55:27 +0000

Author's name:

CapacityPlus

May 2011 (All day)

Rapid DCE Overview (Spanish)

Spanish translation of an overview of the Rapid Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) Tool, intended to allow human resources managers to determine health workers’ motivational preferences.

Determining Priority Retention Packages to Attract and Retain Health Workers in Rural and Remote Areas in Uganda

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:56:45 +0000

Author's name:

Peter Rockers, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Laura Wurts, George Mgomella

February 2011 (All day)

Determining Priority Retention Packages

In Uganda, attracting and retaining health workers in rural and underserved areas has proven difficult. Positions staffed by the Ministry of Health in many of these areas remain 50% vacant. The Ministry of Health is committed to pursuing a package of strategies to make rural postings more attractive. One important step in determining which package of strategies will be most effective is to estimate which strategies health workers themselves most prefer. To this end, the Ministry of Health, in partnership with CapacityPlus, conducted a discrete choice experiment survey among current students in health training programs as well as health workers practicing in rural districts to investigate preferences for potential attraction and retention strategies. The results constitute an important input to the policy-making process related to the identification, costing, and selection of possible retention interventions for implementation.

Retaining Health Workers: A Toolkit to Develop Evidence-Based Incentive Packages

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:53:53 +0000

Author's name:

CapacityPlus

January 2013 (All day)

Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit Overview

An overview of the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit: Designing Evidence-Based Incentives for Health Workers, intended to allow human resources managers to determine health workers’ motivational preferences.