Cargando…

Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives

Limitations in the global anaesthesia workforce contribute to the emigration of skilled anaesthesiologists from lower-income to higher-income countries, jeopardizing workforce balance and patient outcomes in Pakistan. This study aimed to explore the challenges experienced by anaesthesiologists in Pu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shahbaz, Sumbal, Zakar, Rubeena, Fischer, Florian, Howard, Natasha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36294008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013427
_version_ 1784817567544639488
author Shahbaz, Sumbal
Zakar, Rubeena
Fischer, Florian
Howard, Natasha
author_facet Shahbaz, Sumbal
Zakar, Rubeena
Fischer, Florian
Howard, Natasha
author_sort Shahbaz, Sumbal
collection PubMed
description Limitations in the global anaesthesia workforce contribute to the emigration of skilled anaesthesiologists from lower-income to higher-income countries, jeopardizing workforce balance and patient outcomes in Pakistan. This study aimed to explore the challenges experienced by anaesthesiologists in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, and the potential changes to encourage their retention. We conducted a qualitative study, conducting semi-structured interviews with 25 purposively sampled consultant anaesthesiologists working in Punjab and analysing data thematically. Reported professional challenges and reasons consultant anaesthesiologists chose to work abroad differed between public and private sectors, each sector providing distinct challenges that compromised anaesthesia workforce numbers and quality. Key concerns were security, promotion/incentive structures, and gender inequalities in public hospitals versus inadequate salary and facilities, surgeon dependency, and the lack of out-of-theatre practice in private hospitals that minimized the scope and earnings of anaesthesiologists within Pakistan. Our findings help contextualise Pakistan’s anaesthesia workforce crisis, indicating public-sector improvements could include increasing security in hospital premises, performance-based incentives, and qualification-dependent promotion, while private-sector improvements could include decreasing surgeon dependency, fixing salary percentages by surgical case, and encouraging direct patient-anaesthesiologist relationships. National and subnational interventions to promote anaesthesiology, along with public awareness campaigns, could additionally raise its profile and encourage retention.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9603508
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-96035082022-10-27 Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives Shahbaz, Sumbal Zakar, Rubeena Fischer, Florian Howard, Natasha Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Limitations in the global anaesthesia workforce contribute to the emigration of skilled anaesthesiologists from lower-income to higher-income countries, jeopardizing workforce balance and patient outcomes in Pakistan. This study aimed to explore the challenges experienced by anaesthesiologists in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, and the potential changes to encourage their retention. We conducted a qualitative study, conducting semi-structured interviews with 25 purposively sampled consultant anaesthesiologists working in Punjab and analysing data thematically. Reported professional challenges and reasons consultant anaesthesiologists chose to work abroad differed between public and private sectors, each sector providing distinct challenges that compromised anaesthesia workforce numbers and quality. Key concerns were security, promotion/incentive structures, and gender inequalities in public hospitals versus inadequate salary and facilities, surgeon dependency, and the lack of out-of-theatre practice in private hospitals that minimized the scope and earnings of anaesthesiologists within Pakistan. Our findings help contextualise Pakistan’s anaesthesia workforce crisis, indicating public-sector improvements could include increasing security in hospital premises, performance-based incentives, and qualification-dependent promotion, while private-sector improvements could include decreasing surgeon dependency, fixing salary percentages by surgical case, and encouraging direct patient-anaesthesiologist relationships. National and subnational interventions to promote anaesthesiology, along with public awareness campaigns, could additionally raise its profile and encourage retention. MDPI 2022-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9603508/ /pubmed/36294008 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013427 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Shahbaz, Sumbal
Zakar, Rubeena
Fischer, Florian
Howard, Natasha
Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title_full Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title_fullStr Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title_short Professional Obstacles to Anaesthesiology Practice in Punjab, Pakistan: Qualitative Study of Consultant Anaesthesiologists’ Perspectives
title_sort professional obstacles to anaesthesiology practice in punjab, pakistan: qualitative study of consultant anaesthesiologists’ perspectives
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36294008
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013427
work_keys_str_mv AT shahbazsumbal professionalobstaclestoanaesthesiologypracticeinpunjabpakistanqualitativestudyofconsultantanaesthesiologistsperspectives
AT zakarrubeena professionalobstaclestoanaesthesiologypracticeinpunjabpakistanqualitativestudyofconsultantanaesthesiologistsperspectives
AT fischerflorian professionalobstaclestoanaesthesiologypracticeinpunjabpakistanqualitativestudyofconsultantanaesthesiologistsperspectives
AT howardnatasha professionalobstaclestoanaesthesiologypracticeinpunjabpakistanqualitativestudyofconsultantanaesthesiologistsperspectives