Training and flexibility the key to retaining rural doctors

A Monash University study of more than 1100 rural doctors has found that Federal Government strategies to attract doctors to rural areas are working.

The three-year study by Ms Jo Wainer, a senior lecturer in Monash's School of Rural Health, found a high percentage of rural doctors expressed contentment with their life as a rural doctor and satisfaction with rural medical practice.

Ms Wainer said Federal Government programs to encourage medical students and young doctors to experience rural practice before becoming a rural doctor were supported by her finding that intended length of stay in rural practice was associated with prior experience of rural practice. "Based on this strategy alone women intend to stay an additional 3.8 years in rural practice and men an additional 2.9 years," Ms Wainer said. This is on top of the 11 years average stay in rural practice for women doctors and 10 years for men.

Another strategy that was effective in retaining doctors in rural areas for longer was for young doctors to undertake some of their GP training in a rural setting, she said.

"The training programs are working. There is a statistically significant difference in female doctors feeling prepared for rural practice since the National Rural General Practice Study in 1996, from 51 per cent to 66 per cent who feel better trained to deliver the medicine that a rural community requires. For men it is 68 per cent increased to 72 per cent."

Ms Wainer's study found that three-quarters of rural GPs, both male and female, were satisfied with rural practice and that even more were contented with their life as a rural doctor.

"The most important strategy for contentment and satisfaction with rural practice was the same for men and women and that was about structuring their medical practice to reflect the way they wanted to work. This could include flexibility in on-call and practice hours," she said.

The study also found that male doctors who could engage with their rural communities would stay longer. "Rural communities can have some impact on a doctor's desire to stay," Ms Wainer said. "They can ask the doctor how he might like to engage with the community -- does he want to join the football team or to meet families with children the same age?

"With women, most are mothers and also wives or partners. Until now medical practice has not been set up to allow flexibility so women have had to take family time any way they can. So having a practice manager and a community that says: "We know you're a mother and need to pick kids up from school, how can we help you?" can make a big difference. "Women can't be on call for their communities and on call for their families at the same time without some structural support."

Ms Wainer said her report, which has been endorsed by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, revealed that flexibility was required to encourage doctors to join, and remain in, rural practice. "There's no such thing as a generic doctor so governments and communities need to develop programs and practices that reflect that," she said.