Most selfless workers are nurses: Study

Researchers want the government to appeal to the philanthropic nature of Kenyan health workers instead of hinging their satisfaction on money alone.

According to the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), the University of Witwatersrand South Africa and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a study carried out on local health care givers showed them, especially nurses, to be quite generous and selfless than other workers.

After assessing the generosity of 1,064 final year students in Kenya, South Africa and Thailand, the researchers found strong altruistic motives among nurses. They now want employers such as the government to appeal to this generosity while employing or negotiating with health workers.

“This suggests that developing incentives that nurture or are more aligned to such motivations may prove more successful than packages that only appeal to selfish motivations,” says the study published on Tuesday in the Journal of Public Health.

The Kenyan nurses were found to be almost three times more generous than other workers. But while so, Thailand’s workers were much more generous than either Kenyans or the South Africans, a fact attributed to less societal solidarity in the two African countries.

In the experiment, the students were given cash to share with someone else. Giving a greater share of this money to the other person was interpreted as reflecting greater altruism.

Other workers

“Nursing students gave over 30 per cent of their initial gift to others compared to 10 per cent in similar experiments on other type of workers. Respondents in all three countries showed greater generosity to patients and the poor than to fellow students,” says the study.

However, little of this philanthropy has been seen this week with health workers in several hospitals and even trainees going on strike for reasons the study would call selfish motivations.

The health sector was thrown into a crisis on Monday when trainee doctors and nurses in three referral hospitals went on strike over their salaries and allowances. (Read: Doctors called from leave as trainees boycott KNH)

But the Chief Nursing Officer Chris Rakuom has defended the workers, saying they have an incredible passion for their work.

“Our nurses are the best in the region and work selflessly in very trying and unrewarding conditions. They are only asking for some little recognation,” said Mr Rakuom in an interview. “Kenyan nurses are working all over the world but they do not strike, why is it that they are striking at home? That should be the question to be answered.”

Altruism may be the way to go with the minister for Public Health, Mrs Beth Mugo, saying the country may not be able to cope with the growing cost of health care.