Critical review of the use of financial incentives in solving health professionals' brain drain

Abstract

This study critically reviewed the use of financial incentives in solving health professionals’ brain drain, with the view to ascertain its effectiveness. The Systematic Assessment Quantitative Technique (SQAT) developed by Catherine Pickering and Jason Antony Byrne, was used to identify and review 21 relevant peer-reviewed journal articles that investigated six forms of financial incentives in solving health professionals’ brain drain. Evidence from 66.67% of the studies showed that financial incentives are effective in solving health professionals’ brain drain through the use of improved remuneration, funded training, return subsidy and research grant. The remaining part of the studies (33.33%) did not find the use of financial health aid and bonding effective. This study recognized that financial incentives do not fully solve healthcare brain drain and other non-financial measures need to be implemented; future research work should therefore integrate other measures with financial incentives in order to gain additional insight on solving healthcare brain drain. The use of limited but high-quality academic databases means that some articles were not considered for review.