Anderson, Emily, Gurney, Tiana, Young, Louise, O'sullivan, Belinda, McArthur, Lawrie, Mcgrail, Matthew, and Hollins, Aaron (2024) Exploring learning characteristics and progression of GP trainees based in regional, rural and remote settings: A qualitative study. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 32. pp. 1150-1158.

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Abstract

Objective Globally, most doctors train and work in metropolitan areas but a key strategy for developing the rural health workforce is expanding rural training. The aim of this study was to describe the scope and quality of learning along with skill acquisition of GP trainees based in regional, rural, and remote settings.

Setting Regional, rural and remote settings in Queensland Australia excluding Brisbane.

Participants Thirty-seven general practice trainees who had undertaken their first community placement were recruited from regional, rural and remote learning settings within Queensland.

Design Qualitative descriptive methodology based on constructionist epistemology was employed which allowed for the exploration of current GP trainees' experiences. Trainees were interviewed and data were thematically analysed as to the scope and quality of learning by the setting of training. Learning experiences were then mapped against the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model to explore skill acquisition.

Results In terms of the scope and quality of learning, rural and remote trainees mainly focused on the diverse and unique (sometimes challenging) experiences their setting offered compared with regionally based trainees. Mapping of the trainee comments to the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition demonstrated that regardless of setting, equivalent learning occurred by GP trainees.

Conclusions This exploratory study provides evidence that rural and remote learning may provide a more diverse and challenging experience. It suggests an equivalence of quality of education and skill acquisition across settings rural, regional and remote. This suggests that the training distribution policies may not disadvantage GP trainees and the scope and quality of more remote learning may increase uptake of remote placements.

Item ID:	85177
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1440-1584
Copyright Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. © 2024 The Author(s). Australian Journal of Rural Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2025 02:42
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420321 Rural and remote health services @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280112 Expanding knowledge in the health sciences @ 100%
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