Community assets and capabilities to recruit and retain GPs: the Community Apgar Questionnaire in rural Victoria

Abstract

Introduction: Rural communities continue to experience significant challenges recruiting and retaining physicians. The Community Apgar Questionnaire (CAQ) was developed in Idaho in the USA to comprehensively assess the characteristics associated with successful recruitment and retention of rural physicians. The CAQ has been utilised and validated across the USA; however, its value in rural Australia has not been examined. The objective of this study was to use the CAQ in rural Australia to examine its utility and develop a greater understanding of the community factors that impact general practitioner (GP) recruitment and retention. Method: The project conducted structured face-to-face interviews with hospital chief executive officers (CEOs) and directors of clinical services (DCSs) from 14 of the 21 (76%) health services that agreed to participate in rural north-eastern Victoria, Australia. The interviews were undertaken to complete the CAQ, which contains 50 questions centred on factors that influence physician recruitment and retention. Once completed, CAQs were scored by assigning quantitative values to a community's strengths and challenges including the level of importance placed on each factor. As such, the most important factors in physician recruitment, whether they are advantages or challenges for that community, were then weighed for their relative importance. Scores were then combined to create a CAQ score. To ensure reliability and validity of the results, three additional CAQs were purposefully administered to key general practices within the region.

Factors contributing to the recruitment and retention of rural pharmacist workforce: a systematic review

“…In addition, aspects such as independence or autonomy within practice are considered important among all health professional groups along with the need for, or responsibility of, teaching or mentoring. Of interest, nurses shared a commonality with pharmacists regarding past employment in rural areas being positively associated with rural recruitment, however this finding was not observed among medical professionals [1,3,29].…”

“…Lastly, there were again similarities with other health professions in that the motivations for rural practice were for fulfillment and enjoyment of helping others, but also that sense of reciprocity that occurs between health professionals and community members [1,3,41]. In addition, the elements that impact pharmacist workforce recruitment and retention were shown to be linked to the sharing of community experience with other health professionals, an associated sense of belonging that comes from building rapport with customers and feeling valued as a member of the wider rural community [7,15,33,[36][37][38][39]41].…”

“…The resultant familiarity with the rural setting might aid in meeting their needs, as identified in this review, especially regarding connection and integration with other healthcare professionals, and with the community at large. Further, when examining other factors such as economic and resource factors, it is noted that again, common factors such as salary, cost of living, housing affordability, relocation support, and other financial benefits were shared considerations among all health professions, including dentists, nurses, and doctors [1,3,29,44]. Of interest, the economic and resource factors exclusive to pharmacists when compared dental, medicine and nursing professionals are concerned with limited practice resources and the financial risk of owning one's own pharmacy.…”

“…The recruitment and retention of medical, nursing, and allied health professionals in rural and remote areas remains a worldwide challenge, compromising continuity of care and population health outcomes [1,2]. This is despite increases in training, funding and targeted programs aiming to attract and retain pharmacists [2].…”

Sustaining rural pharmacy workforce understanding key attributes for enhanced retention and recruitment

“…Rural and remote regions across the US, Canada and Australia have a rapidly ageing health workforce with several policy responses to sustain rural health services making some gains 3,5–8 . Nevertheless, rural communities continue to experience significant challenges in recruiting and retaining pharmacists 9–11 . Initiatives to facilitate rural pharmacist recruitment and retention in Australia include funding and training packages to support inter‐professional rural placements for pharmacy students and incentives to attract pharmacists to rural communities 6,12 .…”