A Workforce Demographic Profile of Para-Medical Personnel in Pakistan: Age, Gender, Education, Specialization, Experience, Salary, and Family Characteristics

Abstract

Para-medical workers are an important part of the healthcare systems, especially in developing nations where allied health workers are maintaining vital diagnostics and therapeutic services. With all the centrality, limited studies have been conducted on thorough demographic profiling of para-medical staff in Pakistan. This research was an attempt to give a systematic workforce demographics of para-medical staff employed in healthcare facilities in Pakistan. Data collection was done on 2,000 para-medical professionals by using a cross-sectional descriptive research design. Demographic factors divided into age, gender, educational level, specialization, work experience, wage scale, and marital status. The descriptive statistics were calculated to analyze the workforce composition. Findings showed that the workforce consisted mostly of young-to-mid career workers with almost half of the participants forming a central age distribution and equal gender balance. Most of the them possessed diploma or professional technical qualifications with a relatively small number possessed higher academic qualifications. The distribution of work experience indicated that workers were concentrated between early and middle career stages and their salary results indicated a moderate-income distribution that has few prospects of financial growth. A majority of the participants (more than half of the participants) were married and with family obligations. The results present the background workforce information that guides the human resource planning, compensation policy, educational development pathways, and future occupational health studies in the healthcare sector of Pakistan.