Services doing the best they can: service experiences of young adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus in rural Australia.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the healthcare experiences of young adults with type 1 diabetes who access diabetes services in rural areas of New South Wales, Australia. BACKGROUND: The incidence of type 1 diabetes in childhood and adolescence is increasing worldwide; internationally, difficulties are encountered in supporting young people during their transition from children to adulthood. Consumers' experiences and views will be essential to inform service redesign. DESIGN: This was a qualitative exploratory study. METHODS: Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 26 people aged 18-28 years living rurally, recruited through staff in four regional healthcare centres in 2008. RESULTS: Two key themes were evident: lack of access (comprised of transfer to adult services, access to health professionals and access to up-to-date information) and age-appropriate provision. The impact of place of residence and personal motivation crossed all themes. Participants contrasted unfavourably the seamless care and support received from paediatric outreach services with the shortages in specialist and general practice-based care and information and practical problems of service fragmentation and lack of coordination experienced as adults. They identified a range of issues including need for ongoing education, age-appropriate services and support networks related to developing their ability to self-manage. They valued personal service; online and electronic support was seldom volunteered as an alternative. CONCLUSION: This was a first view of rural young people's experiences with adult diabetes services. Reported experiences were in line with previous reports from other settings in that they did not perceive services in this rural area of Australia as meeting their needs; suggestions for service redesign differed. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: New models of age-appropriate service provision are required, to meet their needs for personal as well as other forms of support, whilst acknowledging the very real resource limitations of these locations.

Waiting room ambience and provision of opioid substitution therapy in general practice.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether patients receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST) in general practice cause other patients sufficient distress to change practices--a perceived barrier that prevents general practitioners from prescribing OST. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey of consecutive adult patients in the waiting rooms of a network of research general practices in New South Wales during August-December 2009. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of disturbing waiting room experiences where drug intoxication was considered a factor, discomfort about sharing the waiting room with patients being treated for drug addiction, and likelihood of changing practices if the practice provided specialised care for patients with opiate addiction. RESULTS: From 15 practices (eight OST-prescribing), 1138 of 1449 invited patients completed questionnaires (response rate, 78.5%). A disturbing experience in any waiting room at any time was reported by 18.0% of respondents (203/1130), with only 3.1% (35/1128) reporting that drug intoxication was a contributing factor. However, 39.3% of respondents (424/1080) would feel uncomfortable sharing the waiting room with someone being treated for drug addiction. Respondents were largely unaware of the OST-prescribing status of the practice (12.1% of patients attending OST-prescribing practices [70/579] correctly reported this). Only 15.9% of respondents (165/1037) reported being likely to change practices if theirs provided specialised care for opiate-addicted patients. In contrast, 28.7% (302/1053) were likely to change practices if consistently kept waiting more than 30 minutes, and 26.6% (275/1033) would likely do so if consultation fees increased by $10. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the frequency of stigmatising attitudes towards patients requiring treatment for drug addiction, GPs' concerns that prescribing OST in their practices would have a negative impact on other patients' waiting room experiences or on retention of patients seem to be unfounded.

Lost in transition? Access to and uptake of adult health services and outcomes for young people with type 1 diabetes in regional New South Wales.

OBJECTIVE: To document diabetes health services use and indices of glycaemic management of young people with type 1 diabetes from the time of their first contact with adult services, for those living in regional areas compared with those using city and state capital services, and compared with clinical guideline targets. DESIGN, SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Case note audit of 239 young adults aged 18-28 years with type 1 diabetes accessing five adult diabetes services before 30 June 2008 in three geographical regions of New South Wales: the capital (86), a city (79) and a regional area (74). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Planned (routine monitoring) and unplanned (hospital admissions and emergency department attendance for hypoglycaemia or hyperglycaemia) service contacts; recorded measures of glycated haemoglobin (HbA(1c)), body mass index (BMI), and blood pressure (BP). RESULTS: Routine preventive service uptake during the first year of contact with adult services was significantly higher in the capital and city. Fewer regional area patients had records of complications assessment and measurements of HbA(1c), BMI and BP across all audited years of contact (HbA(1c): 73% v 94% city, 97% capital; P < 0.001). Across all years, regional area patients had the highest proportion of HbA(1c) values > 8.0% (79% v 62% city, 56% capital) and lowest proportion < 7% (4% v 7%, 22%) (both P < 0.001). Fewer young people made unplanned use of acute services for diabetes crisis management in the capital (24% v 49% city, 50% regional area; P < 0.001). In the regional area, routine review did not occur reliably even annually, with marked attrition of patients from adult services after the first year of contact. CONCLUSION: Inadequate routine specialist care, poor diabetes self-management and frequent use of acute services for crisis management, particularly in regional areas, suggest service redesign is needed to encourage young people's engagement.

Postgraduate medical placements in rural areas: their impact on the rural medical workforce.

INTRODUCTION: In 1988, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Health developed the NSW Rural Resident Medical Officer Cadetship Program (Cadetship Program) to help overcome a junior doctor workforce shortage in rural hospitals. A second aim was to increase recruitment to the rural medical workforce on the basis that positive exposure to rural medicine increases the likelihood of choosing to practice in a rural location. The Cadetship Program offers bonded scholarships which provide financial support for residents of NSW studying medicine during the final 2 years of their medical degree. In return, cadets are contracted to complete 2 of their first 3 postgraduate years in the NSW rural hospital network. NSW Rural Doctors Network has managed the Cadetship Program for the NSW Department of Health since 1993, and carried out an evaluation in 2004. The purpose of this evaluation was to track the career choice and practice location of medical students entering the Cadetship Program before 1999, and to comment on the impact of the Program on the rural medical workforce in NSW to date, and its implications for the future workforce. METHODS: The career choice and practice locations of 107 medical students who received cadetships between 1989 and 1998 were tracked. Students who did not graduate from medical school (n = 3) or who did not complete their rural service (13) were excluded from the analysis. Career choice was not available for a further nine former cadets and they were also excluded from the analysis. The NSW Rural Doctors Network was the major source of data on career choice and practice location due to its role in administering the Cadetship Program on behalf of the NSW Department of Health. Two brief questionnaires targeting specific groups of cadets were used to fill knowledge gaps about where cadets grew up, what vocational training they undertook, and where they were working in 2004. Where this information was not obtained from cadets first hand, it was sourced from the CD-ROM version of the Medical Directory of Australia. RESULTS: Forty-three percent of cadets entering the Program before 1999 were working in rural locations in 2004 (compared with 20.5% of medical practitioners nationally), 46% had attended primary school in a rural location and 44% chose to specialize in general practice. Career choice was the major determinant of practice location. Having a rural background did not appear to influence practice location; whereas, those specialising in general practice made up 70% of this cohort of cadets working in rural areas. All general practice trainees were in rural locations compared with only two of the 25 trainee specialists, which reflects the availability of accredited training places in rural Australia. CONCLUSIONS: The Cadetship Program, which ensures junior doctors work for 2 of their first 3 postgraduate years in a rural allocation centre, is an effective link between medical school and rural practice, particularly rural general practice. Providing vocational training opportunities in rural locations is central to this success, and needs to be considered in efforts to expand the rural specialist workforce, and in ensuring rural health capitalises on the increasing number of medical students moving through the education and training system in the next 4-10 years.