Background and Aim: Retention of faculty members is one of the fundamental challenges of the country’s health system. Therefore, this study aimed was conducted with the aim of providing strategies for retaining faculty members in the health field.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in a combined manner in three stages in 2024. In a field review, related articles were reviewed from the Magiran, SID, PubMed databases and using the Google scholar search engine. Out of 18,977 identified studies, 37 articles were selected and reviewed after several stages of screening. In the second stage, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with relevant experts and managers using an inductive approach based on the rules of directional content analysis to identify the factors of retention of faculty members in the health field. Accordingly, the human resource management framework, which includes 5 stages of familiarization with the data, identification of the thematic framework, indexing, display with a diagram, and interpretation of the results, was used for data analysis in this study. MAXQDA-2020 software was used to analyze the research data. Finally, in the third stage, using a prioritization matrix, the solutions were scored and prioritized by 17 experts.
Results: Strategies were identified and classified into 10 areas based on the human resources management cycle, including recruitment, selection and hiring, growth and development, performance evaluation, compensation, organizational culture, improving working conditions, motivation, termination of employment, and external factors. Then, those in each area were prioritized based on their level of efficacy, with the highest priority solutions including improvement of the country’s financial and economic conditions (mean score=4.92 out of 5), an increase in faculty members’ salaries (4.90), removal of the salary cap (4.88), establishment of housing cooperatives (4.82), respect for the dignity and social status of retired professors (4.80), provision of recreational facilities for faculty members (4.79), enhancement of transparency, accountability, and adherence to the rule of law in the country (4.79), and increased faculty participation in decision-making processes (4.47).
Conclusion: Given the results, strategies such as focusing on improving the financial situation, promoting transparency, and increasing the well-being of faculty members can be effective in increasing the motivation and retention of faculty members in the health sector. Therefore, the implementation of these strategies by policymakers and education administrators is expected to improve the retention of faculty members in this sector.
