Onnis, Leigh-Ann, and Hunter, Tahalani (2024) Evaluated interventions for improving rural and remote health workforce sustainability: The Work4rrs Toolkit. In: [Presented at TropiQ Townsville Research Symposium]. From: TropiQ Townsville Research Symposium, 1 October 2024, Townsville, QLD, Australia.

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Abstract

Background: Workforce shortages in rural and remote areas impact individual health outcomes and increase costs where service delivery is already expensive. Currently, there is limited evidence about effective strategies to improve rural and remote health workforce retention. The impetus for improving workforce sustainability is evident, but the path is not as clear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to review a global body of literature for evidence of implemented and evaluated interventions to identify promising practices for rural and remote health services.

Method: A scoping literature review of the scholarly and grey (industry) literature was conducted comprising a search of four scholarly databases; and a website and Google search for grey literature. In total, 15 documents (10 scholarly articles, 5 reports) containing implemented and evaluated interventions met the inclusion criteria.

Results: A conceptual model of the promising practices derived from the review guided the development of a prototype Manager’s Toolkit (Work4rrs Toolkit). The Work4rrs Toolkit contains resources about evaluated interventions (promising practices) for improving rural and remote health workforce sustainability. Working with a Townsville-based non-profit organisation, the Work4rrs Toolkit is being piloted to inform future empirical research.

Conclusions: The scarcity of evidence and absence of scholarship creates opportunities for the development of empirical evidence to inform organisations about designing, implementing and evaluating contextualised workforce strategies. The Manager’s Toolkit developed in this study, together with a call to build an evidence-base of evaluated interventions offers an opportunity to better meet the challenges of workforce sustainability for rural and remote communities.

Item ID:	83938
Item Type:	Conference Item (Poster)
Keywords:	rural and remote health, evaluation research, retention, workforce sustainability
Funders:	National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC)
Projects and Grants:	NHMRC APP1170882
Date Deposited:	30 Oct 2024 00:09
FoR Codes:	35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3505 Human resources and industrial relations > 350503 Human resources management @ 100%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200206 Health system performance (incl. effectiveness of programs) @ 100%
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