**5. Discussion**

The main inference drawn from the findings was that two different retention strategies will be required for professionals and non-professionals, as different factors have been proven to be responsible for the retention of professionals and non-professionals. Moreover, ten themes emerged which has been proved to be pertinent in retaining professionals. From the quantitative and qualitative data, a conceptual model was developed, which would be useful to retain professionals in private pathology.

**Figure 2.** *Retention model for professionals in the health sector.*
