Deployment

This guide aims to provide easy-to-read information and step-by-step advice on a quantitative research method that can help identify appropriate policy responses to health workforce shortages in remote and rural areas. It uses two case studies to illustrate the challenges and the ways to overcome them in conducting the work. [from author]

This study examines the effects of implementing national health insurance on the problem of geographic maldistribution of health providers in Taiwan. [from abstract]

Recent policy recommendations have called for increased research efforts to inform the design of cost-effective interventions to address the shortage of health workers in rural areas. This paper takes forward the recent use of discrete choice experiments to assess the effects of potential incentives to attract nurses to rural areas. [from abstract]

A discrete choice experiment was conducted to evaluate the job preferences of nurses and midwives currently working on a short-term contract in the public sector in Ayacucho, Peru to assess factors that would attract short-term contract nurses and midwives to work in a rural area of Peru. [adapted from abstract]

This article describes a model for interprofessional learning developed to address the barriers related to the delivery of interprofessional education in the rural health setting in Australia across a number of health disciplines. [adapted from abstract]

In this article, the authors describe a pilot program developed by a Tanzania university to train its professional students (dentists, doctors, environmental health officers, nurses, and pharmacists) to work collaboratively with each other and with other health staff at the district level to be sure that staff have the specific skills needed to work in rural districts. [adapted from abstract]

Policy initiatives to improve retention of the rural health workforce have relied primarily on evidence for rural doctors, most of whom practice under a private business model. Much of the literature for rural allied health (AH) workforce focuses on the public sector. This study explores sector differences in factors affecting retention of rural AH professionals. [from abstract]

This study systematically evaluated a program to improve rural health services and reduce inequality in urban and rural services by requiring urban doctors to spend time in rural hospitals. The evaluation assessed changes over time in hospital performance and the rural-urban performance gap. [adapted from abstract]

In response to the shortage of doctors in remote communities, the Philippines began a progrom to attract physicians to work in such areas for a prescribed 2-year period, but ongoing monitoring shows that very few chose to remain there for longer. This assessment was carried out to explore the reasons for the low retention rates and to propose possible strategies to reverse the trend. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this was to describe the current situation of implementing task shifting in the context of acute shortages of health workers and, secondly, and to provide a descriptive account of the potential opportunities or benefits and the likely challenges which might ensue as a result of implementing task shifting. [adapted from abstract]

This study aimed to ascertain the views of key stakeholders on the introduction of a nurse led primary care walk-in center in a rural region of Australia that aimed to fulfill an unmet health care need in the community due to the shortage of general practitioners, meet projected demand for health care services and relieve pressure on the hospital system. [adapted from abstract[

The Ministry of Health and Population of Nepal has identified major challenges in human resources for health, specifically in the shortage, distribution and skill mix of health workers in the country. This report aims to provide insight into specific challenges and policy recommendations for the ministry and concerned stakeholders. [from summary]

A discrete choice experiment was used to test how nurses and certified midwives in Liberia would respond to alternative policies being considered by the ministry of health and social welfare to predict the share of nurses and certified midwives who would accept a job in a rural area under different schemes. [from abstract]

The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of experiential factors across Ghanaian medical students’ lifespans on intent to practice in a rural area and intent to emigrate. [from abstract]

Despite a widespread public health system, the private healthcare sector is the major provider of health care in rural India. This study describes the profile and medical practices of private rural health providers in rural Haryana, India. [from abstract]

This article describes an exploratory study that asked: what is understood by the term motivation; what encourages and discourages providers of maternal and newborn care in rural areas; and which factors influence their performance and job satisfaction. [adapted from author]

This report uses a realist review, which is a theory-based method, to address the questions of why and how certain rural retention interventions work better in some contexts and fail in others. The report provides strong support for the assertion that a bundle of retention strategies should be used in order to successfully attract and retain health workers in remote and rural areas and provides insight into why interventions that were effective in one setting may or may not produce similar results in another. [adapted from preface]

The present study was conducted at KIST Medical College, a private school in the Lalitpur district, to obtain information on student perceptions about working in rural Nepal after graduation. [adapted from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of student characteristics previously correlated to choosing rural practice on osteopathic medical students’ intent to practice in a rural setting. [from abstract]

This study was carried out to assess the attitudes of Ethiopian medical students towards their training and future practice of medicine, and to identify factors associated with the intent to practice in rural or urban settings, or to migrate abroad. [from abstract]

This cross-sectional survey was conducted on consenting students of the first medical school in Gambia to help understand preferences for specialties by medical students, and the factors driving choices, to assist policy makers in ensuring optimal spread of personnel across disciplines. [adapted from abstract]

Using the case of Brazil, the authors measure changes in inequalities in the distribution of the health workforce and account for the sources of inequalities at sub-national level to identify whether policies have been effective in decreasing inequalities and increasing the density of health workers in the poorest areas between 1991 and 2005. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to determine, in one low income country (Nepal), which characteristics of medical students are associated with graduate doctors staying to practise in the country or in its rural areas. [from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to test whether or not the effects of a seven week rural undergraduate placement for medical students (which showed positive influence on student attitudes to rural health and their intention to practise in a rural settings) persisted into postgraduate years. [adapted from abstract]

The major aims of this study were to better understand the challenges faced by rural acute care clinicians and the impact of these challenges on their capacity to carry out their roles. A secondary aim was to explore and prioritise strategies to address selected challenges. [from introduction]

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote Australia. The aim was to investigate issues of importance to policy-makers, managers and therapists providing services to people with disabilities in rural and remote areas. [from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of the innovative research approach called photovoice as an educational strategy to foster learning about and interest in rural locations and rural nursing as future practice settings. [from abstract]

The authors analyzed the flow of all the clinical physicians in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, with particular attention to migration to rural and distant places to determine effective workforce policies for rural and remote areas. [adapted from introduction]

The objectives of this study are to determine the perceived barriers and motivators influencing final year midwifery students’ acceptance of rural postings in Ghana. [from abstract]

This study examined the attitudes of and inclination to rural healthcare careers among medical students in India. [from abstract]