1. 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,
Acknowledgement: This project was funded by Rural Health Workforce Australia, 10 Queens Rd Melbourne, Victoria, 3004
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