Rural Remote Health
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Rural Remote Health · Oct 2009
Personal characteristics and experiences of long-term allied health professionals in rural and northern British Columbia.
Health sciences programs are being designed to attract students who are likely to stay and practice in rural and northern Canada. Consequently, student recruitment and screening are increasingly including assessment of suitability for rural practice. Although retention factors among rural physicians and nurses have been investigated, little is known about factors that contribute to the retention of other healthcare professionals who work in rural areas. The primary objective of this project was to identify the personal characteristics and experiences of allied health professionals who have worked long term in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. ⋯ The findings imply a combination of varying personal values impact the decision to come or stay in rural and northern communities. Personal characteristics and experiences help to shape these personal values. Over time and depending on stage of life, personal values change. Age and stage of life, rural background, and location of family members also have bearing on personal values, which in turn impact recruitment and retention. An explicit identification of values that have emerged out of personal characteristics and experiences may be useful in the selection of students for rural health education programs, as well as the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in rural and northern areas.
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Rural Remote Health · Oct 2009
A new model to understand the career choice and practice location decisions of medical graduates.
Australian medical education is increasingly influenced by rural workforce policy. Therefore, understanding the influences on medical graduates' practice location and specialty choice is crucial for medical educators and medical workforce planners. The South Australian Flinders University Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) was funded by the Australian Government to help address the rural doctor workforce shortage. The PRCC was the first community based medical education program in Australia to teach a full academic year of medicine in South Australian rural general practices. The aim of this research was to identify what factors influence the career choices of PRCC graduates. ⋯ The PRCC is influencing graduates to choose a rural career path. The PRCC program affirms the career preferences of rural origin students while graduates with little rural exposure prior to the PRCC report being positively influenced to pursue a rural career path. The Four Qs Model is a useful model in that it demonstrates consistent themes in the characteristics of PRCC graduates and assists understanding of why they choose a rural medical career. This could be relevant to the selection of medical students into rural medical education programs and in the construction of rural curricula. The model also offers a useful framework for further research in this field.
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Rural Remote Health · Oct 2009
Developing strategies to enhance health services research capacity in a predominantly rural Canadian health authority.
This article outlines the planning, implementation and preliminary evaluation of a research capacity building (RCB) initiative within a predominantly rural Canadian health authority, Interior Health (IH), including initiative characteristics and key activities designed to initiate and enhance health services research capacity within the organization. Interior Health is one of 5 geographic health authorities in British Columbia. Over half of the population IH serves is considered to be rural/remote (approximately 3 people/km2), contributing to difficulties in sharing research information (ie geographical distance to meet in-person and a diverse set of needs and/or priority topics that warrant research support). An initial assessment of IH research capacity in 2006, using an organizational self-assessment tool and discussions with key stakeholders, revealed a need for enhanced communication of health research results, research education and networking opportunities for staff at all levels of the organization. Staff noted barriers to using and sharing research such as lack of time, resources and skills for, and value placed on, participating in research, as well as lack of awareness of linkages with local academic health researchers, including faculty located at two universities within the region. In response to this baseline assessment and stakeholder feedback, short-term funding has allowed for the initial development of RCB strategies in both urban and rural/remote areas of the region, including: IH Research Brown Bag Lunch Seminars; IH Research Skills Workshop Series; literature syntheses/summaries on priority topic areas; research collaboration/partnerships with health authorities, research networks and academic researchers; and an annual IH Research Conference. ⋯ Dedicated RCB resources and staff support, as well as enthusiasm, academic partnerships, and identification of research 'champions' within the organization, have been critical in building research capacity within the region. Video- and teleconferencing, as well as webcasts, have allowed for expansion of RCB activities to rural/remote communities. Preliminary evaluation parameters to date suggest that the information translated during the RCB activities is motivating different groups within IH to initiate their own research and/or KTE strategies. Although preliminary results indicate improvements in research capacity within the organization, barriers to research participation such as time, funding, and communication are still evident 3 years post-implementation. Additional challenges to building research capacity within a rural health authority include geographical distances, diverse 'hot'/priority topics in need of research support, lack of protected time and limited research-related human resource capacity. The translation of research evidence and enhancement of staff research skills through the IH RCB initiatives has helped to achieve new standards of excellence in the planning, management and delivery of all health services across the predominantly rural health authority.
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Evidence indicates a need to recruit more GPs to a career in rural general practice (GP). Research has indicated that placement experiences have the potential to impact on medical career decision-making. Research also suggests that rural placements can raise both professional and psychosocial concerns, but there is no existing evidence about whether pre-placement expectations translate into actual placement experiences. This study aimed to explore both the pre-placement expectations and the post-placement experiences of GP registrars undertaking a rural placement. ⋯ Based on these results it is important for GP supervisors, regional training providers, Divisions and rural workforce agencies to work together to ensure that registrars are provided with information and support pre-placement to alleviate their unwarranted negative expectations, while confirming warranted positive expectations. Warranted negative expectations should also be discussed beforehand to plan strategies for managing them during the placement. If the findings are used in this way, an improvement in overall rural placement experience could be expected.