“Rural health is subjective, everyone sees it differently”: Understandings of rural health among Australian stakeholders (original) (raw)

Understanding rural and remote health: A framework for analysis in Australia

Health & Place, 2012

People living in rural and remote areas face challenges in accessing appropriate health services, many of which struggle to recruit and retain staff. While researchers have documented these issues in Australia and internationally, rural health remains reactive to current problems and lacks comprehensive understanding. This paper presents a conceptual framework that can be used to better understand specific rural and remote health situations. The framework consists of six key concepts: geographic isolation, the rural locale, local health responses, broader health systems, social structures and power. Viewed through Giddens' theory of structuration, the framework suggests that rural health is understood as spatial and social relations among local residents as well as the actions of local health professionals/consumers that are both enabled and constrained by broader health systems and social structures. The framework provides a range of stakeholders with a guide to understanding rural and remote health.

Health and Health Practice in Rural Australia: Where are We, Where to From Here?

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 2005

This paper provides an overview of rural health discourse in Australia highlighting contemporary rural health practice, models of care and the challenges experienced in recruiting and retaining an effective workforce. Socioeconomic difficulties, inequitable access to services including education and health, lower employment levels, harsher environments, occupational hazards, and geographic and social isolation are factors identified as contributing to rural disadvantage. These concerns are described by health professionals when asked if they would consider rural practice as a career option. New initiatives designed to improve the recruitment and retention of health practitioners including nurses to "the Australian bush" are explored.

Australia's Rural and Remote Health. A social justice perspective

Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2004

Rural people's health Healthy Australians The health of rural Australians Priocitising rural people's health Conclusion Discussion points Rural health approaches Public health approach Population health approach Primruy health care approach Story 2: Yvonne and Ken live in Homesville Community-controlled health service approach Conclusion Discussion points Remote Indigenous health Indigenous health Story 3: Stella and Rob live in Nabvalla Health expenditure International comparison What is Australia doing about Indigenous health? Conclusion Discussion points Providing health services The rural health workforce The nursing workforce The medical workforce Indigenous health worker workforce Allied health workforce Pharmacy workforce Why do they stay and why do they go? Outside the health domain Recruitment and retention initiatives Conclusion 10 Educating a rural workforce Disciplinary differences Disciplinary similarities Remote practice Implications for educational designers Conclusion 11 A rural future Social capital Growing health services Advancing rural Australia's health A framework for the future Barriers to 'just' health services References Appendix Useful rural, remote and Indigenous health web sites Index 154 169 172 Acknowledgments \"\lriting a book is essentially a vastly enjoyable yet solitary task. At those times when I came up to surface to seek advice, discuss an issue, or to question whose idea this was in the fust place, there were always a strong supportive circle of people to urge me 00. I would particuJarly like to thank my two doctoral supervisors, Professor Richard Hays and Dr David McSwan, who patiently guided me through the process; acquisitions editor from Tertiary Press, Elizabeth Vella, who provided constlUctive and timely advice that allowed for my littleidiosyncrasies;James Cook University's OCD) School of Medicine, who kindly provided a scholarship for one year;]CU librarians, who were continually generous with their time and expertise; and the staff and students from the Schools of Medicine, Education and Humanities atJC U in Cairns and Townsville. I am also deeply honoured by and rhankful to Father Frank Brennan, whom I see as the guru of social justice in Australia, and who kindly wrote the foreword to this book. Due to the breadth of this book I sought the advice of many others who read the various evolving chapters

Rural and remote health research: Key issues for health providers in southern Queensland

Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2007

Objective: To determine what community health service providers in rural southern Queensland considered were major issues affecting their efficacy. Results will inform the future research strategy of the Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health with the aim of addressing specific regional needs. Design: Interactive research workshops. Setting: Health providers and other key stakeholders. Subjects: Participants from organisations directly involved with health care were complemented by representatives from local government, the police service and church groups. Main outcome measures: The workshops used the nominal group technique to identify what participants considered were key health issues in their locations. These issues were then prioritised by the participants. Thematic analysis of the issues generated a ranking of themes by importance. Results were compared with a similar exercise undertaken in 2003. Results: Seventeen themes were identified with workforce by far the major concern of health providers. Recruitment and retention of health workers were the principal issues of concern. The other four highest ranked themes across all workshops were mental health care, access to health services, perceptions and expectations of consumers and interagency cooperation. The workshops provided important information to CRRAH for developing research strategy. Additionally, new alliances among health providers were developed which will support sharing of information and resources. Conclusion: The workshops enabled organisations to meet and identify the key health issues and supported research planning. New alliances among health providers were forged and collaborative research avenues are being explored. The workshop forum is an excellent means of information exchange.

Setting priorities for rural allied health in Australia: a scoping review

Rural and Remote Health, 2020

Introduction: The allied health workforce is one of the largest workforces in the health industry. It has a critical role in costeffective, preventative health care, but it is poorly accessible in rural areas worldwide. This review aimed to inform policy and research priorities for increasing access to rural allied health services in Australia by describing the extent, range and nature of evidence about this workforce. Methods: A scoping review of published, peer-reviewed rural allied health literature from Australia, Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Japan was obtained from six databases (February 1999-February 2019). Results: Of 7305 no-duplicate articles, 120 published studies were included: 19 literature reviews, and 101 empirical studies from Australia (n=90), Canada (n=8), USA (n=2) and New Zealand (n=1). Main themes were workforce and scope (n=9), rural pathways (n=44), recruitment and retention (n=31), and models of service (n=36). Of the empirical studies, 83% per cent were crosssectional; 64% involved surveys; only 7% were at a national scale. Rural and Remote Health rrh.org.au

Reorientating health services in remote North Queensland to better address Indigenous health

Australia may be a wide brown land but it is also one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world, with 70% of the inhabitants clustered in the major metropolitan centres along the coastal strip. 1 The remainder of the population is spread across a diverse range of regional (13.5%), rural (13.5%) and remote (3%) locations. 2,3 The health status of Australians living in rural and remote areas is measurably poorer than that of their urban counterparts and declines along a continuum as one moves away from the capital cities. 4,5 Health issues relate to living conditions, social isolation, cultural diversity and distance from health services. 6,7 However, the single largest contributor to this differential is the very poor health status of Indigenous persons. The proportion of Indigenous residents increases as locations become more remote, from 1% of metropolitan to 20% of rural populations. 4,8