Abstract:
Human resources crisis is rampant in developing countries. The crisis is exacerbated by the poor performance of health workers due to low motivation. The effectiveness of supportive supervision as a panacea to this problem leaves a lot to be desired. This study was conducted to explore the elements of motivation embedded in supportive supervision that affect performance of health care workers (HflWs) in primary health facilities in Dar es Salaam. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted using semi
structured questionnaires with both closed and open ended questions administered to health care workers of primary health care facilities in Dar es Salaam from July - August 2008. A total of 306 health care workers from 25 facilities were interviewed out of whom 80.7% were female. Female health care workers were found to be more motivated to perform (91 %) compared to male workers. HeWs who had been employed in less than a year's time were found to be motivated to perform (94%) compared to those
employed in 1 or 2 years' time. Majority (83%) of respondents developed a feeling of liking their job more since they were supervised the last time. Awareness of supportive supervision among health care workers of different categories was found to be generally low (26 - 38%) Supervision was perceived to motivate HeWs to perform and develop a feeling of liking their job more (83%). Supervision incentives that influence performance significantly are recognition, mentorship, guidance and counseling (p < 0.05). Since there was low level of awareness of supportive supervision among health care workers, there is a need to orient and sensitize them about supportive supervision. A study should be conducted to find the level of awareness among supervisors so as to ensure there is a common understanding between the supervisor and the supervisee about supportive supervision. Supervisors should be cooperative and fair, recognize, mentor, guide, value, care and counsel supervisees as incentives during supervision as these have been found to influence performance of HeWs in primary health care facilities in Dar es Salaam.
