Rural Health Workforce

UNLABELLED: Many populations experience difficulty accessing eye care, especially in rural areas. Implementing workforce recruitment and retention strategies, as well as task shifting through widening scope of practice, can improve eye care accessibility. This article provides novel evidence on the compatibility of these strategies aimed at enhancing ophthalmic workforce recruitment, retention, and efficacy. PURPOSE: The global burden of blindness is unequally distributed, affects rural areas more, and is frequently associated with limited access to eye care...

INTRODUCTION: Training future providers in telehealth and integrated care models can improve access and outcomes, especially among rural and underserved populations. The (blinded) project implemented behavioral health training for health service psychology doctoral students with three partner organizations. Trainees received both experiential and didactic training in telehealth and integrated behavioral health. Telehealth was utilized for remote warm hand-offs, hybrid shared appointments, therapy sessions, coordination with providers, and supervision...

INTRODUCTION: Pharmacists are often not recognised as a core part of palliative care teams, despite their ideal placement to assist with the burden of medication management. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the role of pharmacists working in the rural palliative care team, in the home-based setting. DESIGN: Health care professionals working with palliative care patients in rural South Australia participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis...

BACKGROUND: A shortage of healthcare providers, particularly in primary care and mental health, exists in the predominately rural state of Idaho. There are also barriers to retaining healthcare providers to work in rural and remote communities. Limited research using U.S. samples has explored factors that may affect the retention of healthcare providers in rural areas. Additionally, due to differences between communities, it is important to conduct community-level investigations to better understand how these factors may affect retention in rural areas...

INTRODUCTION: Outreach care has long been used in Canada to address the lack of access to specialist care in rural settings, but research on the experiences of specialists providing these services is lacking. This descriptive survey study aimed to understand 1) specialists' motivation for engaging in outreach work, (2) their perceptions of the quality of care at their rural outreach hospital, and (3) the supports they receive for their outreach work, in order to create a supportive framework to encourage specialist outreach contributions...

BACKGROUND: This is the first study to explore how age has influenced depictions of doctors and lawyers in the media over the course of 210 years, from 1810 to 2019. The media represents a significant platform for examining age stereotypes and possesses tremendous power to shape public opinion. Insights could be used to improve depictions of older professionals in the media. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to understand how age shapes the portrayals of doctors and lawyers...

ObjectiveTo explore the training needs of the home care workforce in supporting the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples receiving aged care services through the Home Care Package (HCP) Program.MethodsA mixed-methods design including (1) a focus group and interview with coordinators of HCP Program services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across metropolitan and rural South Australia in April and June 2022, and (2) a desktop review of training, professional development opportunities and resources for existing and pre-entry workforce addressing the SEWB of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in aged care across the Vocational Education Training and higher education sectors in South Australia, the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, the Department of Health and Aged Care website and aged care email alerts between December 2021 and September 2022...

BACKGROUND: Local and international research has identified rural origin as an important reason why healthcare professionals (HCPs) work in rural areas, and in South Africa (SA) considerable effort has gone into recruiting and training rural-origin students. However, there is little information in the SA literature on where graduates supported by these initiatives work, and whether they contribute to the rural workforce long term. OBJECTIVE: To determine the number of years that rural-origin Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (UYDF)-supported graduates of different disciplines worked at rural public healthcare facilities (PHCFs)...

BACKGROUND: Despite the assurance of universal health coverage, large disparities exist in access to surgery in the state of Chiapas. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the surgical referral system at hospitals operated by the Ministry of Health in Chiapas. METHODS: 13 variables were extracted from surgical referrals data from three public hospitals in Chiapas over a three-year period. Interviews were performed of health care workers involved in the referral system and surgical patients...

INTRODUCTION: Health disparities between rural and urban areas in Aotearoa New Zealand are exacerbated by rural workforce issues. Traditionally, undergraduate medical programs are urban-based, and reconfiguring the curriculum to meet the needs of rural communities is challenging. The aim of this project is explore how urban-located universities might develop and implement a rural strategy. Evaluation of a rural strategy may lead to the strategy's ongoing improvements designed to increase the rural workforce...

Graduate tracer studies provide an avenue for assessing the impact of residency training on the distribution and access to specialty care and exploring job and professional satisfaction of alumnus. This study examined how the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) clinical residency training program influenced the spatial distribution and career paths of specialists. We conducted a mixed methods study involving an online survey and 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) from June to September 2022. The online survey was distributed to a convenient sample of clinical residency alumnus from MUST via email and Whatsapp groups...

INTRODUCTION: Current strategies to address shortages of rural doctors focus on developing a pipeline for rural generalist practice. Limited research has explored how doctors' professional journey engenders the skills required to practice rurally. OBJECTIVE: This paper analyses how rural general practitioners' clinical pathway informs their scope of practice and future retention. DESIGN: Qualitative thematic analysis using semi-structured telephone interviews...

INTRODUCTION: Pharmacists serve an important role in rural communities, and in some cases they may be the only health professional available. Their recruitment and retention is a major concern for rural communities and health services; however, a deeper understanding regarding the advantages and challenges of sustaining a rural pharmacy workforce is somewhat limited. The aim of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of pharmacists' perspectives about factors influencing pharmacist recruitment and retention to rural and remote communities...

BACKGROUND: Rural maternity service closures and service level reductions are continually increasing across Victoria. There is limited understanding of how rural board members and executives make decisions about their maternity service's operations and sustainability. AIM: To examine perspectives of rural Victorian board members and executives on the sustainability of rural maternity services. METHODS: This was a qualitative study. Interviews were conducted via Zoom™ with 16 rural Victorian hospital board members and executives...

BACKGROUND: The Government of North Macedonia's Primary Health Care reform is committed to leaving no one behind on the path to Universal health Coverage (UHC). During mid-2022 to March 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated with the Government and other national stakeholders for an assessment of barriers to effective coverage with health services experienced by adult citizens, with a specific focus on rural areas and subpopulations in situations of vulnerability. METHODS: This study constituted the piloting of a draft forthcoming WHO handbook on assessing barriers for health services, grounded in the Tanahashi framework for effective coverage with health services...

PURPOSE: Buprenorphine is a highly effective medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) that remains substantially underutilized by primary care professionals (PCPs). This is particularly true in rural communities, which have fewer prescribers and significant access disparities. The Drug Enforcement Administration removed the X-waiver requirement in December 2022, yet many rural clinicians still report barriers to prescribing buprenorphine. In this study, we examined rural PCPs' experiences with buprenorphine to identify tailored training strategies for rural practice...

In this paper, we describe current pressures on health human resources (HHRs) in the Canadian context and related factors that impact equity-deserving communities/populations. We explore issues of HHR challenges in rural, remote and urban underserved contexts and explore the associated benefits and challenges of incorporating digital health (DH). We present examples and evidence of integrating hybrid models of care as a means of supporting HHRs via DH in the publicly funded health system.

Despite widespread adoption of community health (CH) systems, there are evidence gaps to support global best practice in remote settings where access to health care is limited and community health workers (CHWs) may be the only available providers. The nongovernmental health organization Pivot partnered with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to pilot a new enhanced community health (ECH) model in rural Madagascar, where one CHW provided care at a stationary CH site while additional CHWs provided care via proactive household visits...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The widening gap between urban and rural health outcomes is exacerbated by physician shortages that disproportionately affect rural communities. Rural residencies are an effective mechanism to increase physician placement in rural and medically underserved areas yet are limited in number due to funding. Community health center/academic medicine partnerships (CHAMPs) can serve as a collaborative framework for expansion of academic primary care residencies outside of traditional funding models...

BACKGROUND: In the last 30 years, significant advances have been made in pediatric medical care globally. However, there is a persistent urban-rural gap which is more pronounced in low middle-income countries than high-income countries, similar urban-rural gap exists in India. While on one hand, health care is on par or better than healthier nations thriving international medical tourism industry, some rural parts have reduced access to high-quality care. AIM: With this background, we aim to provide an overview of the present and future of healthcare in India...