Evaluation of healthcare workers' awareness of medical health tourism: The case of Alanya

This study was conducted to determine the awareness of medical health tourism of healthcare personnel working in health facilities with a medical tourism authorization. The universe of research was formed by health workers at Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University Educational and Research Hospital. The sample consisted of 175 healthcare workers who were employed between September and October 2023. Data were collected using a demographic information form and the Health Tourism Scale for Healthcare Workers. Independent sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Dunn-Sidak tests were used for statistical analysis of the data. The mean total scores of the healthcare workers WHO participated in the study on the Health Tourism Awareness Scale were 3.39±0.78, 3.38±0.88 in the Institutional Competencies subscale, 3.21±0.68 in the Effects of Health Tourism subscale, 3.46±0.77 in the Problems of Health Tourism subscale, 3.38±0.50 in the Health Tourism Potential of Alanya subscale, and 3.36±0.65 in the Hospital's Health Tourism Applications subscale. It was found that the awareness of health tourism of healthcare workers did not differ according to gender, age, marital status, education level, profession, and years of service in the institution, but did differ according to income-expenditure status and years of work in the profession. As a result, it was determined that the awareness of healthcare workers is at an average level. It was found that the awareness of health tourism of those who are new to the profession and those with low income is higher. In order to increase the awareness of health tourism of healthcare workers, in-house trainings should be organized, and cooperation should be made with tourism stakeholders, and joint training, seminars and workshops should be organized. In addition, it is recommended that health tourism-related courses be included in the curricula of university students studying in the field of health and that they should do internships in health tourism fields.