Promoting rural & remote Exploring incentives for early career professionals to ‘work in the village’: industry stakeholder perspectives Annie Farthing1, Keith Sutton2, Karin Fisher3, Tony Smith3, Anthony Wall4 Promoting rural & remote We need to turn it around and focus on the positives, outlining some clear examples of the benefits of working in a rural or remote community, and there's a bucket load of them. … a broader range of scope of practice … a sense of belonging in a rural community. (Industry Stakeholder, NSW) Positive marketing of rural & remote Increase rural exposure opportunities Support early career employment Develop extended scope roles Career progression I think the prospect of early career progression …[is] a big one … we did some work a while ago which showed the reason most people leave positions in small rural centres is that they can’t go up to a grade – they have hit their career ceiling (Industry Stakeholder, Victoria) Specific allied health & nursing career pathways in remote settings Expose urban practitioners to rural & remote practice through rotations Growing our own Background There is limited evidence about non-medical graduate decision-making for their choice of work location. A collaborative research project was undertaken across three University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) examining the decision to take-up rural practice among urban-trained nursing and allied health professionals. Methods In addition to 36 students and 34 recent graduates, semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with 15 industry stakeholders in New South Wales (NSW), Northern Territory (NT) and Victoria, including: Private and public health sector employers Peak industry bodies for nursing and allied health Relevant professional associations Report’s Key Recommendations I also know here in the Territory they do high school visits … [get] high schools students to actually meet people in their community that maybe already study that degree and have now got a job and they can ask some real questions like how is it working as a professional. (Industry Stakeholder, NT) Financial & other incentives Fund accommodation, transport and bursaries Increase quotas for rural and remote students Affiliations: 1 Centre for Remote Health, Flinders University; 2 Monash Department of Rural Health; 3 University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health; 4 Rural Health Workforce Australia. For more information: Annie Farthing, Centre for Remote Health, PO Box 4066, NT, 0871, annie.farthing@flinders.edu.au Acknowledgement: This project was funded by Rural Health Workforce Australia, 10 Queens Rd Melbourne, Victoria, 3004 Index