STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES ON PERSONNEL PREFERENCE OF HEALTH-SERVICE LOCATION

Health service personnel maldistribution between rural and urban areas remains unresolved in health care organizations. Career preferences of health workers might be contributory to their maldistribution. The health workers preferences could relate to their demographic characteristics. Such characteristics as relevant to their career preferences would be useful for effective health personnel management. The crucial role of nurses and community health workers in the delivery of primary health care services led to their choice as study subjects among the health care team. Rural and urban health services were used as career preferences and the subjects' demographic characteristics were obtained with questionnaires. Analysis of the results showed that nurses and community health workers who preferred rural to urban health service were mainly males, had rural background and had previous rural health service experience. These findings were considered significant for trainee as well as employee recruitment for health services in order to improve the coverage of rural areas with needed manpower for primary health care.