Retention Of Rural Physicians Research Articles

To stay or not to stay: the role of sense of belonging in the retention of physicians in rural areas

ABSTRACT Rural communities across the circumpolar region and worldwide perennially suffer from physician shortages despite decades of attempting targeted strategies for recruitment. Particularly in rural Canada, financial incentives have attracted but not retained a medical workforce. Although the importance of social connection or belonging is a long-established source of well-being, such information has not infiltrated the dialogue or action on physician retention in rural areas. A physician’s sense of belonging, arising from that emotional need for social connectedness, is built via bilateral active efforts at community engagement, reciprocity, social integration of family and workplace collegiality. Links between rural upbringing, rural training opportunities and subsequent rural practice likely rest upon fostering this sense of belonging. Policymakers and recruiters might consider how to help physicians adapt, “fit in”, and consider they have “come home” when they venture off to rural settings. Empowering the community to be involved in the recruitment and retention of rural physicians may also be effective. Perhaps this approach would better address the age-old battle to retain physicians in rural Canada and around the world.

Lessons Learned as Thomas Jefferson University's Rural Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) Approaches the Half-Century Mark.

To help increase the supply and retention of rural family physicians, Thomas Jefferson University initiated the Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) in 1974. The program selectively admits medical school applicants who both grew up in a rural area and plan to practice in a rural area. During medical school, PSAP students have ongoing mentoring and rural clinical experiences. As the program now approaches the half-century mark, this commentary summarizes several important lessons learned. First, outcomes research is critical, and program leaders have been able to publish 15 papers and a book about the PSAP and its outcomes. Second, these studies have shown that the program has been highly successful, with PSAP graduates 8.5-9.9 times more likely to enter rural family medicine than their peers, and that the PSAP contributed 12% of all rural family physicians in Pennsylvania. Other similar medical school rural programs have had comparable success, with more than half of all graduates combined (including PSAP graduates) practicing rural. Third, long-term retention has a multiplicative impact. Long-term retention of PSAP graduates in rural family medicine was greater than 70% after 20-25 years. Fourth, research has shown that the admissions component accounted for approximately three-quarters of the PSAP's success. Three factors available at the time of matriculation (rural background, plans for rural practice, and plans for family medicine) identified almost 80% of all Jefferson graduates in rural practice 3 decades later. Having a peer group with similar backgrounds, mentoring, and the rural curriculum were also very important. Fifth, wanting to live rural appears key to the rural practice decision. Finally, given that medical school programs like the PSAP produce substantial increases in the supply and retention of rural physicians while requiring modest resources, medical schools can have a critical role in addressing the rural physician shortage.

Theoretical analysis of policies to improve the recruitment and retention of rural physicians

The lack of success in resolving the shortage of rural physicians in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries has been attributed to the weakness of implemented policies. This research examines the theoretical plausibility of policies to improve the recruitment and retention of rural physicians, first, by modelling the policies; and then, by describing how they might achieve their intended outcome based on a theoretical analysis. A theory-driven method relying on published research and expert analysis is used. A conceptual model is created to represent the policies and their underlying assumptions. Then, the functional mechanism of the policies is defined. This research demonstrates that financial, educational and tailored interventions might improve rural physician recruitment and retention, but that regulatory interventions are unlikely to do this. The majority of the policies implemented in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries are therefore theoretically plausible.

Interventions to improve recruitment and retention of physicians in rural and remote Canada: a systematic review

Purpose: Rural and remote regions of Canada struggle to attract and retain an adequate healthcare workforce to provide the healthcare needed by their local residents. The purpose of this systematic review is to explore current literature that has analyzed strategies for recruitment and retention of physicians to rural and remote regions in Canada.
 Methods: Scopus and PubMed were searched for articles. To be included in the review, the titles yielded from the initial search had to be in English and meet one of the inclusion criteria: (1) address rural and/or remote healthcare, (2) focus on medical students or physicians, and (3) discuss recruitment or retention strategies. Titles were excluded that discussed non-OECD countries, or that were not original journal articles. The final sample of articles were analyzed by both reviewers for content and emerging themes.
 Summary of Results and Conclusion: The initial search yielded a total of 3397 titles for review. After applying criteria described above, 35 articles remained for review. A variety of recruitment and retention themes were identified targeting physicians before, during, and after their medical education. The most effective strategies consistently appear to be those aimed before medical education, specifically admitting medical students who have a rural background. This review aims to provide a summary of the currently available research to assist with evidence-based decision making to increase supply and retention of rural physicians.

From one-district-one-doctor to the inclusive track: Lessons learned from a 12-year special recruitment program for medical education in Thailand.

The One-District-One-Doctor (ODOD) medical education program was launched in 2005 with the purpose of increasing the production of rural doctors through special recruitment in Thailand. This article provides details of the ODOD program, together with its successes and challenges. Comparisons of the applied interventions between ODOD, the conventional rural recruitment program (Collaborative Project to Increase Production of Rural Doctors [CPIRD]), and the Inclusive track are also described. Compared with the CPIRD program, additional interventions are applied to the ODOD program, including (1) recruitment from remote rural areas; (2) subsidized education in return for service; and (3) extended compulsory service in rural areas with a higher penalty fine. While ODOD students have shown a relatively high rural retention rate, the program challenges include low admission rate, adverse consequences from an extended compulsory service, restriction on specialist training, and high penalty fee. As a consequence of the program interventions, another special medical education program, the Inclusive track, was introduced as a replacement. Strategies through the Inclusive track to recruit students from remote rural areas are similar to those of ODOD. However, unlike ODOD, the Inclusive track has a reduced duration of compulsory service and penalty fine to match those of the standard requirements in the Normal track and CPIRD students. Building on past experience, the Inclusive track pursues a balance of pros and cons from the other medical production programs. Program evaluation and close monitoring will be crucial to measure the feedback from the Inclusive track to further improve the sustainability of long-term retention of rural physicians.

Rural retention of new medical graduates from the Collaborative Project to Increase Production of Rural Doctors (CPIRD): a 12-year retrospective study.

Physician scarcity in rural areas is a major obstacle to healthcare access, leading to health inequity worldwide. In Thailand, a special recruitment program of medical education [Collaborative Project to Increase Production of Rural Doctors (CPIRD)] was initiated with four different medical training tracks. No previous research has examined the rural retention of new medical graduates across the CPIRD tracks, compared with those receiving conventional medical education (Normal track). This study examines the public retention of rural physicians from different tracks of entry. A retrospective study was conducted in new medical graduates who entered Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) hospitals from January 2003 to October 2014, and followed up until June 2015, using administrative data from the Personnel Administration Division, MoPH. The CPIRD registry database was used to identify physicians' tracks of entry. Survival analyses and multiple logistic regression analyses were applied to compare the annual retention and the probability of 3-year retention of rural physicians. Results clearly demonstrated a high rural retention of CPIRD medical graduates, compared with their Normal track peers, regarding both lower annual resignation (HR 0.456, P < 0.001) and higher 3-year retention (OR 2.441, CI: 2.192, 2.719). Some variations of rural retention were revealed across the different CPIRD tracks. Evidence from this study can be used as part of the information to reshape the physician production policy to reduce health inequity in rural areas.

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

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. 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. The 14 rural communities exhibited cumulative CAQ scores ranging from a high of 387 to a low score of 61. This suggests the tool was sensitive enough to differentiate between communities that were high and low performers in terms of physician recruitment. The groups of factors that had the greatest impact on recruitment and retention were ranked highest to lowest and included medical support, hospital/community support, economic, scope of practice and geographic factors. Overall, the highest individual factors to impact recruitment and retention were perception of quality, hospital leadership, nursing workforce and transfer arrangements. Conversely, the lowest factors and challenges to recruitment and retention were family related, specifically spousal satisfaction and access to schools. Hume, in rural Victoria, was the first international site to implement the CAQ to differentially diagnose a community's relative strengths and challenges in recruiting and retaining GPs, while supporting health facilities to prioritise achievable goals to improve long-term retention strategies. It provided each community with a tailored gap analysis, while confidentially sharing best practices of other health facilities. Within Hume, open communication and trust between GPs and health facility leadership and nursing staff ensures that GPs can feel valued and supported. Possible solutions for GP recruitment and retention must consider the social, employment and educational opportunities that are available for spouses and children. Participation in the program was useful as it helped health facilities ascertain how they were performing while highlighting areas for improvement.

A framework for enhancing continuing medical education for rural physicians: A summary of the literature

Background: Recruitment and retention of rural physicians is vital for rural health care. A key deterrent to rural practice has been identified as professional isolation and access to continuing medical education/continuing professional development (CME/CPD).Aims: The purpose of this article is to review and synthesize key themes from the literature related to CME/CPD and rural physicians to facilitate CME/CPD planning.Methods: A search of the peer-reviewed English language literature and a review of relevant grey literature (e.g., reports, conference proceedings) was conducted.Results: There is robust evidence demonstrating that the CME/CPD needs of rural physicians are unique. Promising practices in regional CME/CPD outreach and advanced procedural skills training and other up-skilling areas have been reported. Distance learning initiatives have been particularly helpful in increasing access to CME/CPD. The quality of evidence supporting the overall effect of these different strategies on recruitment and retention is variable.Conclusion: Supporting the professional careers of rural physicians requires the provision of integrated educational programs that focus on specific information and skills. Future research should examine the linkage between enhanced CME/CPD access and its effect on factors related to retention of physicians in rural communities. A proposed framework is described to aid in developing CME/CPD for rural practitioners.

Factors and outcomes in primary care physician retention in rural areas

Background: This paper examines factors influencing physicians’ decisions to practise in rural communities as well as the results of a programme focused on rural recruitment and retention. Methods: Data from two sources were analysed and discussed: 1) telephone interviews with 20 of 33 (61%) recently located rural physicians regarding practice and community factors influencing their practice decisions and 2) a database of 107 graduates of a rural medical education programme who have been in practice for at least three years to examine specialty choice and practice location(s), including moves from their original practice sites.Results: Most rural physicians in this study decided to practise in rural areas because of family ties. Eighty per cent of the physicians participating in the interviews mentioned no negative personal or family factors related to their community of practice. Outcome data on graduates from the rural medical education programme are encouraging. Over 70% opt for primary care and rural practice. Over 80% have remained in their original rural practice location. Conclusion: Keys to success in rural physician retention seem to include identifying and recruiting medical students of rural origin and focusing on a healthy practice environment. Policy makers need to work with local government, schools and employers to offer programmes that provide information on health careers in rural areas and begin to identify local youth for induction in rural health care. Keywords: retention; rural; primary care; physicians; workforce

How can medical schools contribute to the education, recruitment and retention of rural physicians in their region?

Introduction Access to appropriate health care is often difficult for people living in rural areas because of a widespread shortage of appropriately educated local, rural healthcare workers and the distance, time and cost of travelling to larger urban health centres. This shortage is due to many factors including medical education, practice conditions, health system, regulatory, community, personal, family and financial considerations. (1,2) Developing a sufficient and sustainable rural physician workforce requires commitment and cooperation from communities, governments and medical schools.. Medical education can play an important role in the recruitment and retention of rural physicians. (3) Most of the world's medical schools, however, are situated in large cities; most medical students grow up in affluent urban areas, learn little about rural health-care needs and experience little or no medical learning in the rural context. Physician graduates flow almost entirely into large city practices with an insufficient trickle getting out into practice in rural areas. Some medical schools in large cities have developed specific programmes for educating physicians for rural regions. A few medical schools are located in small cities within large rural regions and have a rural regional focus. Graduates of these medical schools often also serve rural populations well outside their own regions. Unfortunately for many developing countries, especially in Africa, many graduates of their medical schools end up in rural practice, often not in Africa, but rather in developed countries where they have been enticed to serve the rural populations. Social responsibility Medical schools should operate under a social accountability framework that includes responsibility to their regions. Four fundamental questions focus on how medical schools can contribute to the education, recruitment and retention of rural physicians in their region and beyond. Students from rural areas Can students from rural areas get admitted into medical school doctor education programmes? Importantly for rural physician workforce planning, physicians who practice in rural areas compared to physicians in urban practice are much more likely to come from a rural background. Students from racial areas, however, face many difficulties and, in most countries, are under-represented in medical schools especially compared to those whose parents are urban, wealthy and highly educated. People in rural regions should expect to have a fair opportunity to get into medical school. Governments and medical schools need to implement cohesive strategies including premedical school outreach education preparatory courses; admission policies that recognize diversity of geographic backgrounds and experiences; and tuition and scholarship support to make medical school affordable.' In Australia, the percentage of students of rural origin in medical schools has more than doubled in response to national policies and incentives. Aboriginal/indigenous people make up an important subset of the world's rural peoples and their health, education and economic status are often worse than the average for rural people. In addition, cultural differences and misunderstandings often create huge barriers. The Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada has partnered with the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada to increase the admission of and support for indigenous students in Canada's medical schools and to develop a First Nations, Inuit and Metis health competencies curriculum framework. Ateneo de Zamboanga University School of Medicine in the Philippines and University of Malaysia Sabah are recent examples of small regional medical schools established with a focus on local indigenous health care. Relevant education Can medical students get education that is relevant to the rural context ? …

Recruitment and Retention of Rural Physicians: Outcomes From the Rural Physician Associate Program of Minnesota

Founded in 1971 with state funding to increase the number of primary care physicians in rural Minnesota, the Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) has graduated 1,175 students. Third-year medical students are assigned to primary care physicians in rural communities for 9 months where they experience the realities of rural practice with hands-on participation, mentoring, and one-to-one teaching. Students complete an online curriculum, participate in online discussion with fellow students, and meet face-to-face with RPAP faculty 6 times during the 9-month rotation. Projects designed to bring value to the community, including an evidence-based practice and community health assessment, are completed. To examine RPAP outcomes in recruiting and retaining rural primary care physicians. The RPAP database, including moves and current practice settings, was examined using descriptive statistics. On average, 82% of RPAP graduates have chosen primary care, and 68% family medicine. Of those currently in practice, 44% have practiced in a rural setting all of the time, 42% in a metropolitan setting and 14% have chosen both, with more than 50% of their time in rural practice. Rural origin has only a small association with choosing rural practice. RPAP data suggest that the 9-month longitudinal experience in a rural community increases the number of students choosing primary care practice, especially family medicine, in a rural setting.

A Contract‐Based Training System for Rural Physicians: Follow‐Up of Jichi Medical University Graduates (1978‐2006)

The number of studies on long-term effects of rural medical education programs is limited. Personal factors that are associated with long-term retention of physicians in rural areas are scarcely known. The authors studied the outcomes of Jichi Medical University (JMU), whose mission is to produce rural doctors, and analyzed the characteristics of its graduates who engaged in rural practice even after their 9-year obligation of rural practice. A retrospective cohort study was conducted including 2,988 JMU students who graduated between 1978 and 2006. Baseline data were collected at matriculation and graduation. Workplace addresses were surveyed in 2000, 2004, and 2006. Follow-up rates were 98.7%, 98.2%, and 98.0% respectively. After their obligation period, JMU graduates were 4 times more likely than non-JMU graduates to work in rural areas. The higher proportion of JMU graduates in rural areas did not change significantly between 1994 and 2004. The rural recruitment rate of post-obligation JMU graduates was somewhat lower than rates reported for top rural medical education programs in the United States. In multivariate analyses, rural upbringing and primary care specialty were positively associated with having a rural address in at least one post-obligation study year (OR 1.89 [95% CI 1.27-2.81]; and 7.63 [4.37-13.34], respectively) and settlement (ie, having a rural address over multiple years) after the contract (1.90 [1.04-3.48]; and 32.07 [4.43-232.24], respectively). Graduation from a private high school had a negative association with recruitment (0.56 [0.33-0.96]). JMU was successful in increasing the number and retention of rural physicians. Rural origin and primary care specialty have a positive impact on both recruitment and retention after the rural obligation.

The role of medical education in the recruitment and retention of rural physicians

In many countries the sustainability of rural healthcare systems is being challenged by a shortage of rural physicians and difficulties in recruiting and retaining physicians in rural practice. There are numerous factors that influence efforts in rural physician recruitment and retention, many of which are beyond the scope of the academic medical centre and medical education. Nevertheless, there are strategies that medical schools can adopt to contribute to efforts to recruit and retain physicians in rural communities. Rural student recruitment, admissions policies, rural-oriented medical curriculum, rural practice learning experiences, faculty values and attitudes, and advanced procedural skills training are areas which the medical school has direct control of and which have been shown to influence the likelihood of medical students entering rural primary care practice. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on some of the key strategies that have been identified in the literature.

Using the theory of reasoned action to model retention in rural primary care physicians.

Much research attention has focused on medical students', residents', and physicians' decisions to join a rural practice, but far fewer studies have examined retention of rural primary care physicians. The current review uses Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to organize the literature on the predictors and correlates of retention of rural practicing physicians. TRA suggests turnover behavior is directly predicted by one's turnover intentions, which are, in turn, predicted by one's attitudes about rural practice and perceptions of salient others' (eg, spouse's) attitudes about rural practice and rural living. Narrative literature review of scholarship in predicting and understanding predictors and correlates of rural physician retention. The TRA model provides a useful conceptual model to organize the literature on rural physician retention. Physicians' subjective norms regarding rural practice are an important source of influence in the decision to remain or leave one's position, and this relation should be more fully examined in future research.

Retention of Rural Physicians: Place Integration and the Triumph of Habit

Retention of physicians continues to be a problem across much of rural North America, and research has neglected the sociogeographical process that leads to it. John Dewey's philosophy, including his insight into habits, suggests that retention is a process of “place integration” or “habitat” formation. A qualitative study of retention in Kentucky illustrates the process. For rural physicians this process revolves around the enhancement of security, freedom, identity, and meaning in place.

Community and self: Concepts for rural physician integration and retention

Low physician availability in rural areas of the United States is a long-standing issue. While most research has focused upon the locational decisions of physicians to understand the causes of the problem, a relatively new and neglected research focus is the retention of rural physicians. This paper takes the perspective that integration of physicians within rural communities is the basis for retention. It introduces concepts of self and community as a basis for understanding “domains” of rural physician integration. From data collected during in-depth qualitative research in rural Kentucky, a framework of integration domains is developed. The three domains of physician self, medical community, and community-at-large are elaborated with examples from the data. To further explain the relationships among the integration domains and their value, the findings are combined with three concepts from social theory. Social capital, core participation, and community reconstruction add dynamic and meaningful aspects to the context in which integration and retention occur, and they provide a conceptual basis to use when investigating or devising actions to facilitate integration.

Physician retention in rural communities: the perspective of experiential place integration

Rural communities across the United States continue to struggle in their attempts to recruit and retain physicians. In response to this ongoing problem, health services researchers have focused on the recruitment of physicians. More recently, however, researchers have recognized the importance of physician retention. Nonetheless, there is a scarcity of theories to explain the process of rural physician retention. This paper provides an overview of retention in health services research. It then proposes a theoretical perspective on retention called “experiential place integration.” The paper subsequently presents an in-depth qualitative study of rural physician integration in Kentucky from which a practical framework of physician integration is constructed. The framework represents integration as an active developmental process based on the enhancement of security, freedom, identity and meaning in place.

Rural health network development: public policy issues and state initiatives.

Rural health networks are a potential way for rural health care systems to improve access to care, reduce costs, and enhance quality of care. Networks provide a means for rural providers to contract with managed care organizations, develop their own managed care entities, share resources, and structure practice opportunities to support recruitment and retention of rural physicians and other health care professionals. The results of early network development initiatives indicate a need for state officials and others interested in encouraging network development to agree on common rural health network definitions, to identify clearly the goals of network development programs, and to document and analyze program outcomes. Future network development efforts need to be much more comprehensive if they are to have a significant impact on rural health care. This article analyzes public policy issues related to integrated rural health network development, discusses current efforts to encourage network development in rural areas, and suggests actions that states may take if they desire to support rural health network development. These actions include adopting a formal rural health network definition, providing networks with alternatives to certain regulatory requirements, and providing incentives such as matching grants, loans, or technical assistance. Without public sector support for networks, managed care options may continue to be unavailable in many less densely populated rural areas of the country, and locally controlled rural health networks are unlikely to develop as an alternative to the dominant pattern of managed care expansion by large urban entities. Implementation of Medicare reform legislation could provide significant incentives for the development of rural health networks, depending on the reimbursement provisions, financial solvency standards, and antitrust exemptions for provider-sponsored networks in the final legislation and federal regulations.

Meeting the challenges of workload and building a practice: the perspectives of 10 rural physicians.

This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to identify and describe factors regarding the retention of rural physicians. A purposeful sample of 10 established rural physicians from counties of fewer than 10,000 people participated in the study. Analysis of the interview transcripts identified the increased workload involved in building a rural practice to be a major concern of the physicians. The physicians expressed this difficulty in the form of two challenging dilemmas: (1) Towns with only a few physicians presented excellent opportunities for a building practice, but the lack of physicians resulted in more difficult working conditions; and (2) building a practice was described as primarily competitive, but staying in rural practice involved working cooperatively with various competitors. The demands of family, practice, and community interact in a complex fashion. The smallest health systems, those in counties with populations of fewer than 10,000, one hospital, and fewer than five physicians, may represent situations where it is difficult to find a workable solution.

Evaluation of a distance consulting service based on interactive video and integrated computerized technology.

Telemedicine equipment was installed at a rural site in Drumheller and at Calgary, 85 miles (136 km) away. It allowed consultation between health-care providers at Drumheller and specialists and subspecialists at the Faculty of Medicine in Calgary. The efficacy of the system in providing more equitable access to health care for persons living in geographically remote sites was evaluated during a 12-month pilot project. Seventy-five encounters were attempted during the study. A total of 55 encounters (42 clinical and 13 non-clinical) were completed. The completed clinical encounters were distributed across a wide spectrum of medical specialties. Users of the system reported favourably on the impact of the telemedicine system on access to health services for rural patients, on diagnostic, investigative and management decisions, on patient and physician travel times, on feelings of professional isolation and educational opportunities and on overall patient health status. The study provides new knowledge and demonstrates the success of the technology in this project. As expected, other problems were raised and addressed in a preliminary manner including: the potential for health-provider education; acquisition and retention of rural physicians; ethical, legal and patient confidentiality issues; minimum acceptable technology; and network management issues.