Knowledge sharing practice and associated factors among health care workers at Health facilities, in Gonji Kolella District, West Gojjam Zone zone, North West Ethiopia

Introduction: Even though knowledge sharing is an important strategic resource for organizational success, poor practice of knowledge sharing is a problem in health care facilities. Though most of the health care worker were aware, willing and have an intrinsic motivation to share their knowledge, they practiced it poorly. Hence, assessing the knowledge sharing practice and associated factors among health care workers are important to take appropriate action. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional quantitative study supported with qualitative data was conducted in selected public health centers Gonji Kolella district from February30 to March30/2014. A total of 291 health workers for the quantitative data and 10 department heads were interviewed for the qualitative part. Logistic regression was used to assess the presence of association between dependent and independent variables using SPSS at 95% CI and 5% margin of error. Results: the study revealed that level of knowledge sharing among health care workers in the selected hospitals was 41.9%. Knowledge sharing opportunity (AOR = 2.65, 95% CI = [1.17-6.01], access to technology (AOR=2.27, 95% CI= [1.17-4.40], familiarizing health care workers to technology (AOR=3.23, 95%CI= [1.28-8.12] and trust on others’ knowledge (AOR =4.78, 95% CI = [1.73-13.22] were independent predictors for knowledge sharing practice. Conclusion: Even though most of the participants were aware, willing and have an intrinsic motivation to share their knowledge, they practiced it poorly for several reasons. The identified main determinants are access to ICT infrastructure, familiarization to available technologies, trust on others’ knowledge and knowledge sharing opportunity. Health center should enhance trusting relationship among health care workers, create knowledge sharing opportunity, avail technological infrastructure and familiarize health care workers to technology to increase knowledge sharing in the organization.