Background Maintaining a health professional workforce in rural and remote areas poses a significant challenge internationally. A range of recruitment and retention strategies have had varying success and these are  generally developed from the collective experience of all health professions, rather than targeted to professional groups with differing educational and support contexts. This review explores, compares and synthesises the evidence examining the experience of early career rural and remote allied health professionals and doctors to better understand both the profession specific, and common factors that influence their experience. Methods Qualitative studies that include early career allied health professionals’ or doctors’ experiences of working in rural or remote areas and the personal and professional factors that impact on this experience were considered. A systematic search was completed across five databases and three grey literature repositories to identify published and unpublished studies. Studies published since 2000 in English were considered. Studies were screened for inclusion and critically appraised by two independent reviewers. Data was extracted and assigned a level of credibility. Data synthesis adhered to the JBI meta-aggregative approach. Results Of the 1408 identified articles, 30 papers were eligible for inclusion, with one rated as low in quality and all others moderate or high quality. A total of 23 categories, 334 findings and illustrations were aggregated into three synthesised findings for both professional groups including: making a difference through professional and organisational factors, working in rural areas can offer unique and rewarding opportunities for early career allied health professionals and doctors, and personal and community influences make a difference. A rich dataset was obtained and findings illustrate similarities including the need to consider personal factors, and differences, including discipline specific supervision for allied health professionals and local supervision for doctors. Conclusions Strategies to enhance the experience of both allied health professionals and doctors in rural and remote areas include enabling career paths through structured training programs, hands on learning opportunities, quality supervision and community immersion. Systematic review registration number PROSPERO CRD42021223187.

Objective: The objective of this review is to investigate the experiences of working as an early career allied health professional or doctor, and the factors that influence this experience in rural or remote environments. Introduction: Recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural and remote areas is challenging, with a range of strategies used to attract and retain them, which vary by profession and jurisdiction. Workforce recommendations are often based on the collective experience of all health professions. This review will explore the experiences of early career allied health professionals and doctors and compare and synthesize the evidence in order to better understand the individual and collective factors to generate relevant recommendations. Inclusion criteria: This review will consider qualitative studies that include early career allied health professionals’ or doctors’ experiences of working in rural or remote areas and the personal and professional factors that impact on this experience. Methods: CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Informit, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Google Scholar, and WorldWideScience.org will be searched to identify published and unpublished studies. Studies published since 2000 in English will be considered for the review. Identified studies will be screened for inclusion in the review by two independent reviewers. Studies for inclusion will be critically appraised by two independent reviewers. Data will be extracted using a standardized tool and reviewers will discuss any disagreements. Data synthesis will adhere to the meta-aggregative approach to categorize findings. The categories will be synthesized into synthesized findings that can be applied as evidence-based recommendations. Systematic review registration number: PROSPERO CRD42021223187

SummaryBackgroundStudent supervision training varies by design and mode and is typically evaluated via satisfaction and confidence rating surveys that consider participants’ subjective perceptions and attitudes. This study investigated the effectiveness of a 2‐day interprofessional student supervision training workshop by identifying participants’ confidence and their learning outcomes, through their responses to a clinical supervision scenario.MethodsFour workshops were held with 112 of 142 workshop participants who consented to respond to a pre‐ and post‐training questionnaire investigating confidence ratings and to a critical clinical supervision scenario that identified key features, actions and subsequent intended outcomes. Critical incident theory was used in the study design and data analysis.ResultsConfidence in supervision knowledge and skills improved after the workshop. Participants identified similar key features of the scenario before and after the workshop; however, there were qualitative differences in their planned actions and intended outcomes. Pre‐workshop, participants focused on feedback and communication strategies to identify and resolve challenges using a didactic approach. Comparatively, post‐workshop, the participants’ response to the scenario suggested that they would collaborate with the student to explore the situation and plan strategies in partnership and to mutually understand the issues. Participants’ pre‐workshop learning goals related to their post‐workshop learning attainment, but findings suggested a deeper understanding and application of the learning after the workshop.DiscussionUsing a critical incident scenario in conjunction with confidence ratings in the evaluation of a student supervision workshop suggested that participants acquired an integrated understanding of students’ learning in clinical placement and provided a framework to guide future training.

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Background: Maintaining a health professional workforce in rural and remote areas pose a significant challenge internationally. A range of strategies have been used to improve recruitment and retention with varying levels of success. To date, strategies are generally developed based on the collective experience of all health professions, rather than targeted to professional groups with differing educational and support contexts. This review sought to explore, compare and synthesise the evidence examining the experience of early career rural and remote allied health professionals and doctors to better understand both the profession specific, and common factors that influence their experience. The results of this review will generate relevant workforce recommendations. Methods: This review considered qualitative studies that include early career allied health professionals’ or doctors' experiences of working in rural or remote areas and the personal and professional factors that impact on this experience. A systematic search was completed (CINAHL (EBSCO), Embase, MEDLINE (Ovid), Web of Science, Informit, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Google Scholar, and WorldWideScience.org) to identify published and unpublished studies. Studies published since 2000 in English were considered for the review. Identified studies were screened for inclusion and critically appraised by two independent reviewers. Data was extracted and assigned a level of credibility. Data synthesis adhered to the JBI meta-aggregative approach.Results: Of the 1408 identified articles, 32 papers were eligible for inclusion. One study was rated as low in quality and all other studies moderate or high quality. A total of 24 categories and 334 findings and associated illustrations were aggregated into three synthesised findings for both professional groups including: making a difference through professional and organisational factors, working in rural areas can offer unique and rewarding opportunities for early career allied health professionals and doctors, acknowledging personal and community influences that make a difference. The synthesised findings illustrate a range of similar and different experiences for early career allied health professionals and doctors in rural and remote areas. Conclusions: Strategies to enhance the experience of both allied health professionals and doctors in rural and remote areas include enabling career paths through structured training programs, hands on learning opportunities, quality supervision and community involvement. Systematic review registration number: PROSPERO CRD42021223187