Barriers to enrolment into a professional upgrading programme for enrolled nurses in Kenya.

Introduction: Nurses play a key role in the provision of health care. Over 70% of the nurses in Kenya are Enrolled Community Health Nurses (ECHNs). AMREF in partnership with Nursing Council of Kenya and the Ministry of Health pioneered an eLearning Nurse Upgrading Programme. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers that hindered enrolment into the programme.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A sample of 532 ECHNs was interviewed from four provinces. Data was collected using a pre-tested self administered questionnaire. Analysis was done using SPSS computer software. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables and chi-square tests used to determine variables that were associated with enrolment. Mann Whitney U-test was used for continuous variables.

Results: A third (29.7%) of the nurses were from Rift Valley province and 17.9% from Coast. Majority (75%) were from public health facilities. The mean age of the nurses was 40.6 years. The average monthly income was KES 22,497.68 (USD 294). Awareness of the upgrading programme was high (97%) among the nurses. The cost of fees was the main (74.1%) barrier to enrolment in all the provinces and across all the health facilities. The type of health facility was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with enrolment. Nurses from faith-based health facilities were less likely to have enrolled.

Conclusion: Awareness of the upgrading programme is high. The cost of upgrading programme, age and working in a faith-based health facility are the main barriers to enrolment. Intervention that fund nurses to upgrade would increase nurse enrolment.