Examining medical doctors’ internship training experience and labour market transition in Kenya

Talk summary: Kenya has a severe shortage of doctors. Despite medical schools training increasing numbers of medical doctors, less than half of newly qualified/registered doctors were absorbed by the public sector between 2015 and 2018. It seems timely to understand the labour market for this profession in system terms and in personal terms for doctors especially during their labour market entry. This presentation will include findings on doctors’ internship training experiences and labour market transition in Kenya using a multiple-method approach.

Speaker: Yingxi Zhao is a final year doctoral student at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. As a global health researcher with training in quantitative and qualitative methods, his doctoral project focuses on human resource for health in low- and middle-income countries with a specific focus on medical doctor interns. His doctoral project includes fieldwork in Kenya, and prior to this Yingxi also worked in Myanmar focusing on ethnic health system strengthening and health workforce development, and in China focusing on neonatal health. His research interests also include development assistance for health, global health systems and health financing.