Availability and characteristics of publicly available health workforce data sources in Australia
Date
2020
Authors
Gillam, M.H.
Leach, M.J.
Gonzalez-Chica, D.A.
Muyambi, K.
Jones, M.
Walsh, S.
Eshetie, T.
Tran, K.
May, E.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Medical Journal of Australia, 2020; 213(11):S23-+
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
Objectives: Maldistribution of the health workforce between rural, remote and metropolitan communities contributes to longstanding health inequalities. Many developed countries have implemented policies to encourage health care professionals to work in rural and remote communities. This scoping review is an international synthesis of those policies, examining their effectiveness at recruiting and retaining nursing and allied health professionals in rural communities. Study design: Using scoping review methods, we included primary research published between 1 September 2009 and 30 June 2020 that reported an evaluation of existing policy initiatives to address workforce maldistribution in high income countries with a land mass greater than 100 000 km2. Data sources: We searched MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Ovid Emcare, Informit, Scopus, and Web of Science. We screened 5169 articles for inclusion by title and abstract, of which we included 297 for full text screening. We then extracted data on 51 studies that had been conducted in Australia, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Norway. Data synthesis: We grouped the studies based on World Health Organization recommendations on recruitment and retention of health care workers: education strategies (n = 27), regulatory change (n = 11), financial incentives (n = 6), personal and professional support (n = 4), and approaches with multiple components (n = 3). Conclusion: Considerable work has occurred to address workforce maldistribution at a local level, underpinned by good practice guidelines, but rarely at scale or with explicit links to coherent overarching policy. To achieve policy aspirations, multiple synergistic evidence based initiatives are needed, and implementation must be accompanied by well designed longitudinal evaluations that assess the effectiveness of policy objectives.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2020 AMPCo
Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript available after 1 January 2022