Towards more rural nursing and allied health services: current and potential rural activity in the Division of Health Sciences of the University of South Australia.

INTRODUCTION: As part of Australia's regional health strategy, one of the recently introduced initiatives aims to increase the range of allied health and nursing services available in rural and remote communities, reflecting the growing recognition of allied health rural and remote workforce problems. While some programs focus on increasing services in rural and remote communities, long-term solutions depend in part on the actions and activities of training institutions. Medical schools are being encouraged and financed to provide more rural exposure for undergraduates, but less is known about such programs for allied health and nursing students. METHODS: A survey of the seven Schools comprising the Division of Health Sciences of the University of South Australia was undertaken to determine the extent of rural exposure in undergraduate education, research, and service support. RESULTS: Five Schools (71%) offer rural placements for undergraduates, four (57%) are doing rural research and three (43%) provide some services to rural communities. Contingent on appropriate resources, all Schools expressed a strong desire to substantially increase the amount of rural activity. CONCLUSION: This research highlighted the paucity of data in this area and suggests the need for a national survey.

Establishing a practice based primary care research network. The University Family Practice Network in South Australia.

BACKGROUND: Practice based research networks enable the study of primary care problems in a primary care setting. To be successful, our experience indicates that a network will need to incorporate a number of key components. In South Australia, a University Family Practice Network has been established to undertake primary health care research and teaching and to contribute to the general practice workforce. The University Family Practice Network is composed of five practices and is managed jointly by the Department of General Practice, Adelaide University and the South Australian Centre for Rural and Remote Health, Adelaide University and the University of South Australia. OBJECTIVE: This article details the successful establishment of the University Family Practice Network in the hope of providing a model for other universities who may be interested in setting up a practice based research network. DISCUSSION: The characteristics of this network include fractional academic positions for general practitioners, computerised medical records, location in rural and urban sites, regular meetings and the appointment of a research fellow. A number of benefits have arisen since the network's establishment that will assist its future development and sustainability. These include collocation with allied health services, development of local expertise and workforce support.

Associations between rural background and where South Australian general practitioners work.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between rural background on practice location of general practitioners (GPs) (rural or urban). DESIGN: Comparison of data from two postal surveys. SUBJECTS: 268 rural and 236 urban GPs practising in South Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Association between practice location (rural or urban) and demographic characteristics, training, qualifications, and rural background. RESULTS: Rural GPs were younger than urban GPs (mean age 47 versus 50 years, P < 0.01) and more likely to be male (81% versus 67%, P = 0.001), to be Australian-born (72% versus 61%, P = 0.01), to have a partner (95% versus 85%, P = 0.001), and to have children (94% versus 85%, P = 0.001). Similar proportions of rural and urban GPs were trained in Australia and were Fellows of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, but more rural GPs were vocationally registered (94% versus 84%, P = 0.001). Rural GPs were more likely to have grown up in the country (37% versus 27%, P = 0.02), to have received primary (33% versus 19%, P = 0.001) and secondary (25% versus 13%, P = 0.001) education there, and to have a partner who grew up in the country (49% versus 24%, P = 0.001). In multivariate analysis, only primary education in the country (odds ratio [OR], 2.43; 95% CI, 1.09-5.56) and partner of rural background (OR, 3.14; 95% CI, 1.96-5.10) were independently associated with rural practice. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the policy of promoting entry to medical school of students with a rural background and provide an argument for policies that address the needs of partners and maintain quality primary and secondary education in the country.

Continuing medical education needs for local general practitioners.

A survey was conducted of the expressed continuing medical education needs of a group of 64 suburban general practitioners attached to a South Australian Hospital. The top five stated urgent and necessary training needs were acute and emergency disease management, diabetes management, terminal care, dermatology and medicine. The form of CME most preferred was patient/clinical practice and the greatest barriers to CME were stated as lack of time and loss of income. Practitioners with less than 10 years experience significantly chose training in ear, nose and throat (p < 0.01), rheumatology (p < 0.01) (Fisher's exact test, two-sided), compared with more experienced practitioners. Those in group practice significantly chose training in orthopaedics (p < 0.01, Fisher's exact test, two-sided) and the management of change (p = 0.037, Fisher's exact test, one-sided) more than solo practitioners while female practitioners significantly expressed the need for ante natal care training (Chi square = 8.85; df = 1; p < 0.01).