Designing and Validating a Model for Retaining Doctors and Specialists in Deprived Areas of the Country: A Mixed Approach

Introduction: One of the major challenges of the health system is the limited access of people in deprived areas to healthcare services. This is because the doctors and specialists do not stay there for long. This research also aims to design a model for retaining doctors and specialists in deprived areas of the country. Methods: This research was exploratory in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of type. It was a field study conducted in two qualitative and quantitative stages in 2022. In the first stage, 20 doctors and specialists from deprived areas in the northwest of the country were selected through purposive sampling using the chain-referral method (snowball sampling).  In the second stage, 200 doctors working in universities of medical sciences in northwestern provinces were randomly selected. For analysis, content analysis method and Atlas-ti and Smart PLS were used. Results:Based on the findings, the following contents were identified as the components and indicators of retaining doctors and specialists in deprived areas of the country; employment with 6 indicators, financial support with 3 indicators, social with 5 indicators, policy-making with 4 indicators, motivation with 7 indicators, professional and career improvement with 7 indicators, management and systematic factors with 5 indicators, and finally, mental and psychological factors with 3 indicators. Conclusion: The "social" component with a path coefficient of 0.921 had the highest coefficient, and "management and systematic factors" component with a value of 0.722 had the lowest coefficient in the designed model.