INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROGRESSIVE RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT AND SCIENCE (IJPREMS) Vol. 02, Issue 09, September 2022, pp : 96-103 e-ISSN : 2583-1062 Impact Factor : 2.265 www.ijprems.com editor@ijprems.com @International Journal of Progressive Research In Engineering Management And Science Page |- 96 HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: THE NIGERIA'S EXPERIENCE Julius O. Owoyemi, Ph.D, Edime Yunusa* Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prince Abubakar Audu University Anyigba - Nigeria *Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prince Abubakar Audu University Anyigba-Nigeria Corresponding Author: yunusaedime@gmail.com ABSTRACT The weightiness of human resources being the hallmark and life wire of every organization across the globe especially the healthcare delivery system cannot be overestimated even in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper examined human resources in the healthcare delivery system with an eagle eye on Nigeria's experience. The specific objectives of the paper included a look at the challenges facing human resources in Nigerian healthcare delivery system and the strategies to strengthening human resources in the Nigeria healthcare delivery system. Secondary sources of data were reviewed and content analyzed while organizational lifecycle theory of human resources management was utilized buttress the paper. Meanwhile, the paper revealed among others that inadequate budgetary allocation in the healthcare sector, insecurity/unsafe workplaces; inadequate career structures; poor remuneration/unfair pay leading to brain drain are the major factors driving human resources challenges in Nigeria healthcare delivery system. The paper therefore advocates provision of effective political leadership, facilitating public-private partnerships in the healthcare and implementing enhanced health sector salary scheme among others to strengthen the human resources in the Nigeria healthcare delivery system. Keywords: Healthcare, delivery system, Human resources, Nigeria, Experience. 1. INTRODUCTION The concept of human resources can be seen as the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include manpower, labour, personnel, associates or simply: people. Human resources, when pertaining to health care, was defined by WHO (2000) as the different kinds of clinical and non- clinical staff responsible for public and individual health intervention (Howard et al., 2006 cited in Oyewola, 2018). Human resources in healthcare system play indispensable roles as it enable effective healthcare service delivery through staff performance monitoring and evaluation, compensation as well as recruitment of competent employee. In the healthcare services, human resource (HR) is not only involved in securing and developing the talents of individual workers, but also in implementing programs and policies that enhance communication and cooperation between those individual workers in order to support organizational development (Elarabi & Johari, 2014). Numerous documented literatures have disclosed the roles of human resources in developing the quality of healthcare services and found that the incentives and providing motivation to work and follow the system of bonuses by competencies improve the performance of individuals working in hospitals. Organizations in general, deploy Human Resources (HR) departments with the aim of improving performance. Despite great roles played by the HR department in the health sectors, a number of healthcare systems are still experiencing poor service delivery (Oyewole, 2018). Within many health care systems worldwide, increased attention is being focused on human resources management (HRM). Specifically, human resources are one of three principal health system inputs, with the other two major inputs being physical capital and consumables (WHO, 2007). As arguably the most important of the health system inputs, the performance and the benefits the system can deliver depend largely upon the knowledge, skills and motivation of those individuals responsible for delivering health services (WHO, 2007). To strike a balance between the human and physical resources, it is also essential to maintain an appropriate mix between the different types of health promoters and caregivers to ensure the system's success (WHO, 2007). Due to their obvious and important differences, it is imperative that human capital is handled and managed very differently from physical capital Both the number and cost of health care consumables (drugs, prostheses and disposable equipment) are rising astronomically, which in turn can drastically increase the costs of health care. In publicly-funded systems, expenditures in this area can affect the ability to hire and sustain effective practitioners. In both government-funded and employer-paid systems, HRM practices must be developed in order to find the appropriate balance of workforce