ABSTRACT
The study examined the training
and its challenges to hospital employees under the Ghana Health Service of the
Trauma Hospital at Winneba in the Central Region. The case study research
design was adopted for the study. Through the use of census sampling and the
simple random sampling procedures 60 hospital employees were selected to
participate in the study. The questionnaire was used to gather the requisite
data for the study. The data were analyzed through the computation of
descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, as well as mean of
means distributions.
The study among other things
found out that training is organized for the employees only once in a while
i.e. once in a year. With this, the hospital staffs are mostly offered with
both on-the-job and off-the-job training. Job instructional training was the
type of on-the-job training that was mostly offered to the employees whereas
the off-the-job type of training was offered during workshop to hospital staff.
Also, it was found out that, there is lack of interest and committed
management; insufficient budget; lack of motivation; lack of recognition of
performance of hospital employees; and lack of promotion characterized the kind
of environment at the workplace of the hospital employees.
The study recommended that
frequent training, on-the-job and off-the-job training, should be organized for
the hospital staff both senior and junior staff members so that staff members
are abreast with current trends of attending to the health needs of patients.
Again, management should show interest, commitment, and active participation
towards and during organizing training programmes in order to motivate hospital
employees to also take part in training programmes in order for hospital staff
members to recognize the need for such training programmes to their development.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
From the World Health Organization’s WHO perspective, health
is defined as “a state of physical, mental and social well being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity’ the organization therefore sees health of
an individual or a community as being concerned not only with physical and
mental status, but also with social and economic relationships. In (1948), the
organization WHO again viewed health from another perspective as a fundamental
human right irrespective of race, religion, political belief and economic or
social condition. As such, member states are expected to be concerned with
equal access and issues of evenhandedness. In this regard, the state is to
ensure that health care provided is of adequate quality. In addition health is
considered by others as an investment because it has a direct relationship with
productivity, the better the health of a country’s workforce, all things being
equal, the higher the productivity of the said country. Illness may affect the
overall production, either through absenteeism or lack of energy which may
result to presenteeism-working while ill. It is in the light of this that
governments with different views on health linked to their own ideologies are
therefore likely to view their responsibility towards the health sector
differently (Green 1996).
Organization of health services by nations are shaped by many
factors or elements such as the size and distribution of the population,
demography, political structure, politics, decentralization, economic policies
and income structure etc.
Demographically it is difficult to organize health in large
countries or countries with population sparsely distributed. In Ghana for
instance, Northern Region is the largest region but the population is so sparse
that it is difficult to locate and reach people for health services compared to
a concentrated and heavily populated region like greater Accra, the capital of
Ghana. The sex and structure of Ghana is typical of a developing country where
the bulk of the population (about 50%) is young (Ghana statistical service,
2003)
The political system of a country can also influence the
health service delivery. In socialist state like Cuba, health care provision is
in the hands of the state unlike the United State of America where health is
seen and considered as business which is essentially privatized.
Ghana Health Service as the main policy implementation
machinery for the Ministry of health both at the primary and the secondary
levels is responsible for the provision of integrated and comprehensive system of
health through preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services. The
hospitals under Ghana Health Services are responsible for clinical activities
at regional, district and sub-district. The hospitals therefore are set out to:
implement approved national health policies for health delivery in the country;
increase access to improve health services; improve quality of service; as well
as manage prudently resources available for provision health services.
In order that staffs have the necessary skills, knowledge and
abilities to effectively implement programs and confront any challenges at the
institutional levels, Ghana Health Service incorporates training and capacity
development into its activities. This is in recognition of the fact that,
health service is dynamic due to the technological advancement and changes that
are on going the world over. Under this strategy, training and capacity
development are to be based on planned and well coordinated schemes which must
be a component of a performance management system. Similarly each management
centre is expected to ensure that, their staffs have access to regular
in-service training activities.
Problem Statement
For every training program to be more effective, that is,
well design and implemented, HRD professionals must pay a very critical
attention to “problems associated with training” and try to minimize them if
not eliminate them completely. Training is human resource function that
involves developing employee’s skills, knowledge and abilities to meet the
organizations needs. Training creates competence, motivated and high-performing
workforce that is prepared to meet future demands. It also maximizes employee
potential, leading to higher productivity. However, this all important exercise
comes with its associated problems for the HR department to encounter in
implementing training due to inappropriate training, lack of interest and
management support, insufficient budget, lack of transfer of training, lack of
needs assessment, which is the process of identifying the ‘’gap’’ between the
current performance and department or organizational objectives. Problems
associated with training hampers and impact on the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by an employee or
an organization’s workforce to achieve their objective. Unfortunately all the
challenges to training are left to the backdrop at the margin of consciousness.
As a result, training activities in the health institution are more often
conducted without needs assessment, lack of interest and management support,
insufficient budget, lack of transfer of training among others and are often
focus on the clinical areas to the neglect of that of management, (Ghana Health
Service). This undoubtedly has resulted to lack of capacity to equip hospital
staff with the needed skills, knowledge and abilities to effectively perform
their duties. (DeSimone & Harris, 1998).
In addition, even though Ghana health Service has training
policy guidelines, there is no structured training programmes outlined to equip
hospital staff with requisite skills, knowledge and abilities, the study has
found. Some institutions attempt to build their own capacity through workshops
and seminars. Sometimes some individuals also try to respond to this need by
enrolling in management schools but all these are done without any official
needs assessments, lack of management support and commitment, insufficient
budget and therefore do not necessarily address the management needs
holistically and provide the needed skills, knowledge and abilities required to
effectively manage the hospitals.
For more Human Resource Management Projects Click here
===================================================================Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 78 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
===================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.