Health professionals’ intention to leave their job from public health facilities and associated factors in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Intention to leave describes an employee’s intention or plan to leave their current job and seek alternative employment opportunities. This intention serves as an early indicator of potential turnover behavior. Notably, no comprehensive national data in the country reveals the extent and underlying factors associated with this phenomenon.Objective: To examine health professionals’ intention to leave their jobs in public health facilities and its determinants in Ethiopia.Methods: Studies were searched for using databases such as PubMed, CINHAL, Science Direct, and HINARI, while Google Scholar was utilized for accessing gray literature. This review covers both published and unpublished studies containing quantitative data written in English, focusing on the intention of health professionals to leave their jobs in Ethiopia. All necessary data were extracted by two independent authors and imported into STATA version 14.0 for analysis. Heterogeneity was checked by using a χ2 and I2 tests. Publication bias was examined by performing Egger’s correlation and Begg’s regression intercept tests. A meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model.Results: We used a total of 25 primary studies in our review. The pooled overall health professionals’ intention to leave their job was 59.05% (95% CI; 54.35, 63.74%) with a range from 39%-83.7%. Sex (AOR: 1.69, 95%CI: 1.31 -2.18), job or work environment (AOR: 3.59, 95% CI: 2.05–6.29), payment or any benefit (AOR: 7.37, 95%CI: 2.89-18.79), supervision and evaluation (AOR: 2.99, 95% CI: 2.27–3.93), appraisal and recognition (AOR: 3.4, 95% CI: 2.62-4.41) and organizational commitment (AOR: 1.9, 95%CI: 1.04–3.48) were the significant factors.Conclusion and recommendation: The results reveal a significant intention among health professionals to leave their jobs in Ethiopia. To counter this trend, it is advised to cultivate a positive workplace environment, implement effective monitoring and evaluation systems, and offer ample career development opportunities.