The Northern Territory Medical Program – growing our own in the NT

Worley, Paul; Lowe, Michael; Notaras, Leonard; Strasser, Sarah; Kidd, Michael; Slee, Mark; Williams, Rhys H.; Noutsos, Tina; Wakerman, John

doi:10.22605/rrh4671

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In Australia, which has established national rural training policies over 20 years, the findings usefully suggest that efficiencies could be gained by requiring its medical schools to increasingly target selecting rural background students from the same regions, where they provide rural training (rather than any rural region of origin). Some programs are leading the way, such as the new Northern Territory (NT) Medical Program which prioritises first NT indigenous applicants and second NT non-indigenous applicants [2]. Other wholly regional medical programs also have processes to select high proportions of rural origin students from their jurisdictions, and show encouraging retention at the macro regional level [46][47][48][49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Author details 1 The University of Queensland Rural Clinical School, 78 on Canning St, Rockhampton, QLD 4700, Australia. 2 The University of Queensland, Rural Clinical School, Locked Bag 9009, Toowoomba, QLD DC 4350, Australia.…”

Section: Abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…health workforce. They began in rural medicine in 1990 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], which involved selecting health students from specific rural regions and training them in the same regions for extended periods, to improve local retention. This was considered more efficient and productive than trying to recruit doctors with no connection to rural medicine and the specific region, to work across the broader scope of skills needed in rural communities [8][9][10][11].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Increasing doctors working in specific rural regions through selection from and training in the same region: national evidence from Australia

McGrail

O’Sullivan

2021

Hum Resour Health

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Background ‘Grow your own’ strategies are considered important for developing rural workforce capacity. They involve selecting health students from specific rural regions and training them for extended periods in the same regions, to improve local retention. However, most research about these strategies is limited to single institution studies that lack granularity as to whether the specific regions of origin, training and work are related. This national study aims to explore whether doctors working in specific rural regions also entered medicine from that region and/or trained in the same region, compared with those without these connections to the region. A secondary aim is to explore these associations with duration of rural training. Methods Utilising a cross-sectional survey of Australian doctors in 2017 (n = 6627), rural region of work was defined as the doctor’s main work location geocoded to one of 42 rural regions. This was matched to both (1) Rural region of undergraduate training (< 12 weeks, 3–12 months, > 1 university year) and (2) Rural region of childhood origin (6+ years), to test association with returning to work in communities of the same rural region. Results Multinomial logistic regression, which adjusted for specialty, career stage and gender, showed those with > 1 year (RRR 5.2, 4.0–6.9) and 3–12 month rural training (RRR 1.4, 1.1–1.9) were more likely to work in the same rural region compared with < 12 week rural training. Those selected from a specific region and having > 1-year rural training there related to 17.4 times increased chance of working in the same rural region compared with < 12 week rural training and metropolitan origin. Conclusion This study provides the first national-scale empirical evidence supporting that ‘grow your own’ may be a key workforce capacity building strategy. It supports underserviced rural areas selecting and training more doctors, which may be preferable over policies that select from or train doctors in ‘any’ rural location. Longer training in the same region enhances these outcomes. Reorienting medical training to selecting and training in specific rural regions where doctors are needed is likely to be an efficient means to correcting healthcare access inequalities.

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