Deployment

What Influences National and Foreign Physicians' Geographic Distribution? An Analysis of Medical Doctors' Residence Location in Portugal

The present research sets out to investigate the current distribution of national and international physicians in Portugal, with the objective to understand its determinants and provide an evidence base for policymakers to identify policies to influence it. [from abstract]

Retention of Allied Health Professionals in Rural New South Wales: A Thematic Analysis of Focus Group Discussions

This study aims to identify aspects of recruitment and retention of rural allied health professionals using qualitative methodology to establish the motives and conditions that encourage allied health professionals to practice rurally. [from abstract]

Which Doctor for Primary Health Care? Two Studies from Chhattisgarh, India

This presentation outlines two studies concerning the recruitment and retention of health workers in underserved areas. [adapted from author]

Institute for Rural Health Studies, Hyderabad

This case study reports on how the Institute for Rural Health Studies has managed to provide seamless access to healthcare for thousands of people throughout the state of Andhra Pradesh through both rural clinics and its related programs in the city’s bus station connecting to a network of patient counselors in government hospitals. [from author]

Does the Insufficient Supply of Physicians Worsen Their Urban-Rural Distribution? A Hiroshima-Nagasaki Comparison

Studies have suggested that a rapid increase in physicians does not necessarily change an urban–rural inequity in their distribution. This study applied spatial competition and attraction–repulsion hypotheses to the geographic distribution of physicians during a time of insufficient physician supply in Japan to determine whether an insufficient supply of physicians worsens an inequity. [adapted from abstract]

Extending the Paramedic Role in Rural Australia: A Story of Flexibility and Innovation

This article identifies trends in the evolving practice of rural paramedics and describes key characteristics, roles and expected outcomes for a rural expanded scope of practice model. The study found that paramedics are increasingly becoming first line primary healthcare providers in small rural communities and developing additional professional responsibilities throughout the cycle of care. [from abstract]

Midwives Service Scheme in Nigeria

This study evaluates the Midwives Service Scheme in Nigeria which engaged newly graduated, unemployed, and retired midwives to work temporarily in rural areas to improve the wide variation between maternal, newborn, and child health indices across geopolitical zones and between urban and rural areas, mostly due to variations in the availability of skilled attendance at birth. [adapted from author]

Can Medical Education in Poor Rural Areas be Cost-Effective and Sustainable: The Case of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University School of Medicine

This study examined the hypothesis that a medical school in a low-resource setting, based on volunteer faculty, can be sustainable and associated with improvement in medical workforce and population health outcomes. [from abstract]

Clinical Decision-Making of Rural Novice Nurses

Because nurses are often the first to triage and begin treatment, especially in rural areas, an understanding of how they make decisions in patient care is important. The purpose of this study was to explore the decision-making experiences of the rural novice nurse. [from author]

Rural Origin Plus a Rural Clinical School Placement is a Significant Predictor of Medical Students' Intentions to Practice Rurally: A Multi-University Study

The aim of this study is to identify and assess factors affecting preference for future rural practice among medical students participating in the Australian Rural Clinical Schools Program. [from abstract]

Any Body is Better than Nobody? Ethical Questions around Recruiting and/or Retaining Health Professionals in Rural Areas

The objective of this article is to argue that it is important for all stakeholders involved in rural recruitment and/or retention processes to consider their decisions and actions from an ethics perspective. [from abstract]

Increasing the Number of Rural Physicians

This article discusses the issues facing rural physicians, analyzes efforts to recruit and retain them, and outlines what it will require to increase their numbers.

Bright Future for Rural Health: Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Rural and Remote Australian Health Care

These case studies from accross Austraila show how rural and remote health professionals are making a difference locally and give insights, approaches and solutions to similar challenges or problems faced elsewhere. Evaluated solutions for many pressing health issues are presented as well as two big policy issues: building sustainable rural primary health care services, and responding to an ageing health workforce. [adapted from foreword]

Textbook of Australian Rural Health

This text describes how rural health professionals and rural communities are currently working towards healthy communities. Significant rural issues are analysed with regard to professional practice and personal lifestyles, as well as how these issues could be addressed by innovative future practice or how they present challenges for learning or teaching. [adapted from author]

Access to General Practitioner Services amongst Underserved Australians: A Microsimulation Study

This paper aims to examine equity of utilisation of general practitioner services in Australia, particularly those living in remote or rural areas. [from abstract]

Outreach Services as a Strategy to Increase Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas

This report presents an overview of outreach services provided by health workers to remote and rural populations in different countries and contexts. It highlights the potential for alternative health service delivery models, such as mobile clinics and telemedicine, to enhance the attraction and retention of health workers in underserved areas. [from preface]

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences

This technical report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Ministry of Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization and CapacityPlus, using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit. The DCE surveyed health professional students and health workers practicing in rural provinces to investigate their motivational preferences for potential strategies to increase attraction and retention in the country’s rural and remote settings. [from publisher]

Convincing Health Workers to Work in Rural Areas

The focus of this brief is on nurses’, clinical officers’ and assistant medical officers’ job preferences and their willingness to work in rural and remote areas in Tanzania. [from author]

For Money or Service? A Cross-Sectional Survey of Preference for Financial Versus Non-Financial Rural Practice Characteristics among Ghanain Medical Students

The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of preference for rural job characteristics among fourth year medical students in Ghana including salary, infrastructure, management style, and contract length in considering future jobs. [from author]

Urbanization and Physician Maldistribution: a Longitudinal Study in Japan

In this study, the authors analyze the trends in the geographic disparities of population and physician distribution among the secondary tier of medical care in Japan. [adapted from author]

Getting Health Workers to Rural Areas: Innovative Analytic Work to Inform Policy Making

This paper presents results of an empirical study conducted in Liberia and Vietnam using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) which aimed to predict the likelihood of health workers taking up a rural area job under alternative incentive schemes.

Motivating Health Workers to Serve in Rural Lao PDR

This issue of Voices describe an effort to assess health workers’ preferences in order to determine the most effective incentives for rural service. [adapted from author]

Understanding the "Four Directions of Travel": Qualitative Research into the Factors Affecting Recruitment and Retention of Doctors in Rural Vietnam

Many countries, including Vietnam, are debating the right mix of interventions to motivate doctors in particular to work in remote areas. The objective of this study was to understand the dynamics of the health labour market in Vietnam, and what might encourage doctors to accept posts and remain in-post in rural areas. [from abstract]

Willingness to Work in Rural Areas and the Role of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Professional Motivations: A Survey of Medical Students in Ghana

This paper assesses the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on willingness to accept postings to deprived areas among medical students in Ghana. [from abstract]

Junior Doctors' and Medical Students' Commitment to Working in Areas of Workforce Shortage

The purpose of this study was to report on the preparedness of medical students and junior doctors to commit to working in areas of workforce shortage. [from abstract]

Training Family Physicians in Community Health Centers: A Health Workforce Solution

For more than 25 years, family medicine residencies have worked with community health centers (CHCs) to train family physicians. This study compares CHC and non-CHC-trained family physicians regarding practice location, job and training satisfaction, and recruitment and retention to underserved areas. [from author]

Bachelor of Rural Health Care: Do We Need Another Cadre of Health Practitioners in Rural Areas?

This article proposes the idea of a new degree course in medicine of a shorter duration to encourage students from rural areas to take up medicine and then provide services in their local areas. [from author]

Collaboration to Change the Landscape of Nursing: A Journey between Urban and Remote Practice Settings

This article describes an innovative strategy to test a health human resource (HHR) planning and employment model to foster inter-organizational collaboration, knowledge transfer and exchange of nurses between an urban academic health science centre and a remote region in northern Ontario. [from introduction]

Key Factors Leading to Reduced Recruitment and Retention of Health Professionals in Remote Areas of Ghana: a Qualitative Study and Proposed Policy Solutions

This qualitative study was undertaken to understand how practicing doctors and medical leaders in Ghana describe the key factors reducing recruitment and retention of health professionals into remote areas, and to document their proposed policy solutions. [from abstract]

Creating a Sustainable and Effective Mental Health Workforce for Gippsland, Victoria: Solutions and Directions for Strategic Planning

The reported study sought the views of mental health organisation leaders from Gippsland to identify current approaches and potential solutions to the challenges of workforce recruitment, retention and training in rural areas. [from abstract]