Association Between Formal Continuous Professional Development, Job Satisfaction and Perceived Job Characteristics: the Case of Clinical Officers in Nairobi County

Abstract

Clinical officers are middle-level healthcare providers trained to offer health services at all levels in Kenya health system. This therefore necessitates them to provide quality, safe and evidence based care that meets their communities changing health needs. In light of this, they must become lifelong learners committed to update, maintain, develop and enhance their professional skills, knowledge and attitudes through Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Job satisfaction among them and their perception towards job characteristics is of importance as it has an impact quality of care they offer. The extent to which professional development training influences levels of job satisfaction and perception towards job characteristics is however still an area that has not been given prominence. The aim of the study was to find out the extent to which formal CPD training influences job satisfaction and perceived job characteristics among clinical officers in Nairobi County. Literature was reviewed in regards to the theoretical rationale (Two- Factor Theory) and empirical review on perceived job characteristics and job satisfaction based on; Pay, Promotion/Career progression, Relation with Co-workers, Supervision and working conditions. It also examined the training, licensing and practice of Clinical Officers in the Kenyan context, highlighting their Formal CPD framework. The study was conducted in Nairobi City County’s Level II – Level III health facilities in the period from March 2017 to May 2017. Multi-stage sampling method was used to obtain a sample size of 113 participants from target population of 308 clinical officers. In each cluster, stratified sampling was used to select the health centers in relation to the population size. Finally, the clinical officers were randomly selected as respondents from each health facility selected. Sampling was without replacement and each element was sampled once. A self-administered data collection instrument consisted: Socio-demographic data, formal CPD frame work, attributes of job satisfaction and perception to job characteristics. Analysis of data collected done using SPSS version 23, utilizing descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The study findings indicated an association between CPD and job characteristics with a significance of 0.000. The overall job satisfaction was higher in the group that had attended formal CPD. Among the attributes of job satisfaction, formal CPD had the greatest influence on satisfaction with supervision (β=0.128, t=1.225, p=0.224). CPD was a major predictor of perception towards skill variety and task significance.