BA IN HEALTH CARE SERVICE MANAGEMENT 302

RESEARCH METHODS GROUP 2

FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO SHORTAGE OF ACCOMODATION FOR

NURSES AT EXTENSION 2 CLINIC.

OBJECTIVES
- Identify possible causes of shortage of accommodation for nurses.
-Evaluate the effects of shortage on service delivery
-Estimate level of shortage accommodation.

INTRODUCTION
Though nurses are an important resource in a health facility their basic need of accommodation
is not met. Unfortunately this situation is not exclusive to developed countries, most developing
countries also have the same problem of shortage of accommodation for nurses. According to
study health facilities in London are faced with the same problem, an online survey undertaken
in (November 2015) shows the following statistics describing the housing situation in London
about 35% of nurses live in their private houses, local authority rented houses 16% and about 3%
are provided accommodation by employer or live in institutional houses. A number of nurses are
even considering to leave London because of housing costs and not being able to commute to
reasonable distance to work. African countries are also faced with this shortage of
accommodation for nurses. Botswana is faced with this challenge in most health facilities
including Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital. This unavailability of staff accommodation leads to
most of Nyangabgwe staff not being accommodated in institutional housing as 17 doctors and
405 nurses were not accommodated in institutional houses, (Daily News, 2016). According to
another literature (Daily News, 2015) shows that Bontleng clinic has 21 nurses, 14 are in private
houses and 7 in institutional houses, the matron stays at Kanye at her matrimonial house. As a
developing country Botswana health facilities are really faced with accommodation shortage.
Despite the attempts by the Government of Botswana through the ministry of Health,
accommodation shortage still stand as a major challenge in Botswana.
RATIONALE
Shortage of accommodation is a major challenge in most health facilities across the country,
which is why we decided to conduct this research .The research will benefit both the nurses and
the health facility as it aims at coming up with possible solutions to shortage, which will in turn
help solve the problem thus help in improving the service delivery and performance of nurses.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The ministry of health works tirelessly to ensure that there is staff housing for nurses and health
employees, through provision of institutional houses which are subsidized. However shortage of
accommodation is still a major challenge in our health facilities, since the total number of
institutional houses cannot accommodate all the nurses. Therefore because of shortage of
accommodation most of the nurses stay in privately rented houses which are not subsidized.
According to literature (DAILY NEWS 2015) the Gaborone DHMT had 71clinic houses against
an establishment of 846 staff, thus most of the employees are housed in private or own houses
and few in council houses. About 28% of staff are in institutional houses while 72% are in
private houses. In extension 2 clinic there are 23 nurses, 4 are in institutional houses, 19 are in
private houses.