Workplace Learning and Employee Innovation in the Nigerian Health Sector

This study examined the relationship between workplace learning practices and employee innovation behaviour among health workers in selected tertiary hospitals in Edo and Delta States, South South Nigeria. Healthcare delivery quality in Nigeria is critically dependent on the continuous professional learning of health workers, yet workplace learning-innovation relationships within the Nigerian health sector have received limited empirical attention from adult education researchers. The study employed a quantitative correlational design involving 180 health workers including nurses, laboratory scientists, and pharmacists from two federal teaching hospitals and one state specialist hospital. Validated workplace learning experience and innovative work behaviour instruments, supplemented by structured demographic surveys, formed the data collection tools. Multiple regression analysis identified workplace learning experience as a significant positive predictor of innovation behaviour, explaining 47 percent of variance in innovation scores. Learning from colleagues, participation in professional development workshops, and access to online clinical knowledge resources were the specific learning activities most strongly associated with innovation behaviour. Organisational learning climate moderated the learning-innovation relationship, with workers in supportive learning environments demonstrating twice the innovation behaviour rates of those in restrictive environments. Recommendations include developing structured workplace learning strategies within Nigerian hospital human resource management frameworks, creating internal knowledge-sharing platforms for health workers, establishing supportive learning climates as a measurable healthcare quality indicator, and investing in continuous professional development programmes linked to innovation and quality improvement goals. Keywords: workplace learning, employee innovation, health workers, continuing professional development, South South Nigeria.