Factors affecting rural GP retention
Retention of NSW rural and remote GPs differs markedly according to both geographical remoteness and community population size, as well as according to a range of other factors including Visiting Medical Officer status, procedural activities, country of primary medical degree, conditional registration and coastal location.
These are some of the finding presented by Dr Deb Russell School of Rural Health Research from her research on the retention of rural and remote NSW general practitioners at the Primary Health Care Research conference in Canberra in July.
The conference theme was: Integrating knowledge exchange to improve primary health care outcomes. Deb’s presentation related to recently published research undertaken by herself, and John Humphreys and Matthew McGrail, at SRH and the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care, as well as with key stakeholders from the NSW Rural Doctors Network. The research presented forms part of Deb’s PhD and fits closely with one of SRH’s strategic research direction themes: health services and workforce. Presenting this work strengthens the national profile of the School of Rural Health, according to Deb.
“Specifically, my presentation focussed on the policy implications of the empirical research,” Deb explained. This work is of significant interest to health workforce policymakers, according to Deb, as it provides an evidence-base derived from robust quantitative methods to inform future health workforce planning.
“It is particularly relevant to how retention incentives are distributed to GPs, to the increasing use of coercive recruitment and retention workforce policies in Australia, and to the training pathways for rural generalists.”
“These are important findings, and it is important to disseminate the material at a national level. This conference was a useful way in which to achieve this. “
The conference also provided an opportunity to strengthen existing collaborations.
“I was able to attend a meeting of the Centre for Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care for team members attending the conference,” Deb said. “This formal opportunity for face to face meetings with fellow collaborators, together with more informal opportunities occurring throughout the conference enabled discussions of current work and planning of future projects.”
“I provided support for collaborators, including CRE research capacity building participants, in preparation for their presentations, as well as in preparation for a future joint publication.”
Dr Matthew McGrail and Dr Bernadette Ward from SRH Research also attended the conference.