Why doctors choose small towns: A developmental model of rural physician recruitment and retention☆

Systematic review of effective retention incentives for health workers in rural and remote areas: Towards evidence‐based policy

“…There was also a focus on workplace factors without any assessment of the significance of community issues that necessitate a careful matching of new recruits with their broader employment context. 36 Lastly, there was inadequate attention to the importance of ensuring good organisation and management within rural and remote health services. 37 In view of the multiple factors influencing length of stay, an effective retention strategy should factor in all of these considerations rather than focus solely on one aspect that might appear to be more immediately influential in determining length of stay.…”

An Overview of Distribution of Births in United States Hospitals in 2008 with Implications for Small Volume Perinatal Units in Rural Hospitals

“…This was especially important as recent evidence suggests the number of rural hospitals providing OB services may be declining because of decreasing reimbursement (National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services [NACRHHS], 2005) and increasing costs (Zhao, 2007). Recruitment and retention of nurses has been identi¢ed as a sig-ni¢cant challenge in small rural hospitals resulting in shortages of nurses (Hancock, Steinbach, Nesbitt, Adler, & Auerswald, 2009;MacDowell, Glasser, Fitts, Nielsen, & Hunsaker, 2010;Molinari & Monserud, 2008), however, no studies were found regarding availability of perinatal nurses in rural areas or nurse sta⁄ng of perinatal units in these types of hospitals.…”

International medical graduates mandated to practise in rural Australia are highly unsatisfied: Results from a national survey of doctors

“…Additionally with regards to nonprofessional aspects, our study reveals the significant negative experience of restricted IMGs is over and above any reduced satisfaction of being located in small communities of <50,000 residents [29]. Restricted IMGs do not follow the traditional recruitment pathway to rural practice [24,35,36] and are unlike those who choose rural practice based on rural upbringing or positive exposure to rural practice. It is unsurprising that restricted IMGs express strong dissatisfaction with all non-professional location aspects, all of which are critical determinants of doctor's decisions regarding future practice location and length of stay, including opportunities for spouse employment, social and leisure activities and schooling [21,24].…”

“…The importance of maximising community engagement and integration of new rural doctors, including IMGs, for workforce recruitment and retention is widely recognised [26,35,37]. Although not all recruitment and retention factors are easily 'modifiable' by interventions, there is no doubt that non-professional factors associated with place of residence are likely to be similarly important as those professional factors that influence the day-to-day practise activities for many doctors, often more so for 'restricted' IMGs who have limited choice of their practice and residential location.…”