Healthcare Professionals’ Perception and Associated Factors towards Hospital Leadership at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia, 2022.

Abstract

Abstract Background: The perception of healthcare professionals towards organizational leadership has a significant impact on the success of healthcare reform implementation. At the organizational level, clinical personnel is currently confronted with distortive incentive systems, ineffective management practices, and unattractive work environments. This results in a fluctuation in the perception of the health system. Few studies have been conducted in Ethiopia to assess healthcare professionals’ perceptions towards institutional leadership. Objective: To assess and determine factors affecting the perception of healthcare professionals towards hospital leadership at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia, 2022. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional with a mixed method was conducted from May 28 to June 10, 2022. A total of 571 randomly selected participants were participated in this study. Data were collected by using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Stata version 14. Multiple linear regression was conducted to identify factors significantly associated with the perception of healthcare professionals towards hospital leadership. ?-coefficient with 95% CI and p-value < 0.05 were used to determine the factors associated with the outcome variable. For the qualitative study, a total of 5 participants were involved in IDI. TCA of the interviews was performed using Open Code software version 4.02. Results: This study showed that the percentage mean score of HCPs' perception towards hospital leadership was 47.8% (95% CI: (44.3, 52.2)). Net monthly salary (? = -0.13; 95% CI: (-0.24, 0.02)),

work experience (? = 0.10; 95% CI: (0.001, 0.19)), laboratory professionals (? = -0.26, 95% CI: (-0.50, -0.02)), midwifery professionals (? = -0.37; 95% CI: (-0.59, -0.14)), environment (? = 0.34; 95% CI (0.26, 0.41)), infrastructure (? = 0.22; 95% CI: (0.15, 0.29)) and job satisfaction (? = 0.19; 95% CI: (0.09, 0.28)) were significantly associated factors with the perception of healthcare professionals towards hospital leadership. Conclusion and recommendation: In this study, the percentages mean score of HCPs perception towards hospital leadership was low. Therefore, the hospital should improve work experience, job title, job satisfaction, environment, and infrastructure to enhance their perception. Keywords: Healthcare professionals, Perception, Institutional Leadership, Ethiopia.