Committee approved the overall collation and analysis of the data from individual universities (approval 016190S). Each university gained approval from their institution's HREC to provide the deidentified data.

Introduction: Rural health services throughout the world face considerable challenges in the recruitment and retention of medical specialists. This research set out to describe the factors that contribute to specialist workforce retention and attrition in a health service in rural Tasmania, Australia.

Background: Workforce shortages in Australia are occurring across a range of health disciplines but are most acute in general practice. Skill mix change such as task substitution is one solution to workforce shortages. The aim of this systematic review was to explore the evidence for the effectiveness of task substitution between GPs and pharmacists and GPs and nurses for the care of older people with chronic disease. Published, peer reviewed (black) and non-peer reviewed (grey) literature were included in the review if they met the inclusion criteria.

A total of 125 questionnaire replies were received (response rate 55%), 59.3% of GPs and 74.6% of non-GPs had experienced work-related violence during the previous 12 months. The difference was not significant (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.20-2.06). Subjects in rural practices were more likely than those in urban practices to have experienced violence (OR 3.79, 95% CI 1.15-12.5). Personal experience of violence (OR 35.9, 95% CI 6.24-207) and a perception that violence is increasing (OR 8.33, 95% CI 1.89-36.6) were associated with apprehension regarding violence at work.

Introduction: Inequitable distribution of health workforce limits access to healthcare services and contributes to adverse health outcomes. WHO recommends tracking health professionals from their points of entry into university and over their careers for the purpose of workforce development and planning. Previous research has focused on medical students and graduates' choice of practice location. Few studies have targeted nursing and allied health graduates' practice intentions and destinations. The Nursing and Allied Health Graduate Outcomes Tracking (NAHGOT) study is investigating factors affecting Australian nursing and allied health students and graduates' choice of graduate practice location over the course of their studies and up to 10 years after graduation by linking multiple data sources, including routinely collected university administrative and professional placement data, surveys of students and graduates, and professional registration data. Methods: By using a prospective cohort study design, each year a new cohort of about 2000 students at each participating university