Issues Affecting Australia’s Rural Occupational Therapy Workforce

Abstract

The unequal distribution of health workers across Australia in favour of urban areas affects the provision of effective health services to rural and remote communities. Additional pressures on the current and future supply of occupational therapists may arise from a restructuring of the health labour force and demographic changes in the age structure of the population. Projections made on the basis of these data indicate that employment growth for occupational therapists will create a demand for 9600 therapists in 2005, or 79.9% more than the number of occupational therapists employed in 1994. Factors such as reductions in the level of immigration and the number of people of working age, and a diminishing population of school leavers to fill student places in universities will make it difficult to meet the projected demand for occupational therapists. Occupational therapy labour force planning suffers from a lack of detailed data on under-serviced areas. Such data are critical for clarifying the magnitude of the projected discrepancy between future demand and supply needs for occupational therapists in rural and urban areas in Australia.

Geographic distribution of the Australian primary health workforce in 1996 and 2001

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]30,31 The finding of minimal g rowth in the nursing workforce is also consistent with others' conclusions reg arding generalised shor tages in the nursing workforce. 32 A limitation of the present study is the use of actual numbers of Rural Health Geographic distribution of the health workforce …”

“…6 In contrast to the medical workforce, there has been relatively little analysis of the geographic distribution of other professions involved in delivering primar y health services. While there is some data to show an uneven distribution of non-medical health professionals across geographic regions in Australia, [7][8][9] there have been few analytic studies. International research suggests that the distribution of allied health and nursing workforces in rural and remote regions is likely to mir ror medical workforce supply patterns.…”

Going country: Rural student placement factors associated with future rural employment in nursing and allied health

“…8,18 The characteristics of rural placement programs associated with influencing students to take up rural practice have not been established. Students' positive experiences of Aboriginal culture and integrated multidisciplinary work are possible factors.…”

Pressure care practice and occupational therapy: Findings of an exploratory study

“…Despite lower than expected responses, the characteristics of the participants are broadly comparable with the Australian occupational therapist population by gender, age and rural ⁄ urban location. For instance, the 2006 Census of Population and Housing (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006) estimates that 7% of the profession are male, and 80% of the profession are under 45 years, and Millsteed (2000) indicated that 15% of the profession practised in rural areas (see Table 1). …”