IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i13p4652-d377445.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Faculties to Support General Practitioners Working Rurally at Broader Scope: A National Cross-Sectional Study of Their Value

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew R. McGrail

    (Rural Clinical School, The University of Queensland, Rockhampton 4700, Australia)

  • Belinda G. O’Sullivan

    (Rural Clinical School, The University of Queensland, Rockhampton 4700, Australia)

Abstract

Strategies are urgently needed to foster rural general practitioners (GPs) with the skills and professional support required to adequately address healthcare needs in smaller, often isolated communities. Australia has uniquely developed two national-scale faculties that target rural practice: the Fellowship in Advanced Rural General Practice (FARGP) and the Fellowship of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (FACRRM). This study evaluates the benefit of rural faculties for supporting GPs practicing rurally and at a broader scope. Data came from an annual national survey of Australian doctors from 2008 and 2017, providing a cross-sectional design. Work location (rurality) and scope of practice were compared between FACRRM and FARGP members, as well as standard non-members. FACRRMs mostly worked rurally (75–84%, odds ratio (OR) 8.7, 5.8–13.1), including in smaller rural communities (<15,000 population) (41–54%, OR 3.5, 2.3–5.3). FARGPs also mostly worked in rural communities (56–67%, OR 4.2, 2.2–7.8), but fewer in smaller communities (25–41%, OR 1.1, 0.5–2.5). Both FACRRMs and FARGPs were more likely to use advanced skills, especially procedural skills. GPs with fellowship of a rural faculty were associated with significantly improved geographic distribution and expanded scope, compared with standard GPs. Given their strong outcomes, expanding rural faculties is likely to be a critical strategy to building and sustaining a general practice workforce that meets the needs of rural communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew R. McGrail & Belinda G. O’Sullivan, 2020. "Faculties to Support General Practitioners Working Rurally at Broader Scope: A National Cross-Sectional Study of Their Value," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4652-:d:377445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4652/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4652/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew R. McGrail & Belinda G. O’Sullivan & Deborah J. Russell, 2019. "Rural Work and Specialty Choices of International Students Graduating from Australian Medical Schools: Implications for Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Madhan Balasubramanian & Stephanie Short, 2021. "The Future Health Workforce: Integrated Solutions and Models of Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-4, March.
    2. Bailin Ge & Zhiqiang Ma & Mingxing Li & Xiaomeng Chi & Hira Salah ud din Khan & Ling Yang, 2022. "Exploring the Nexus of Healthcare Employees’ Professional Quality, Health Psychology and Service Value: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Belinda O’Sullivan & Matthew McGrail & Tiana Gurney & Priya Martin, 2020. "A Realist Evaluation of Theory about Triggers for Doctors Choosing a Generalist or Specialist Medical Career," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-17, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tzu-Ling Weng & Feng-Yuan Chu & Chiao-Lin Li & Tzeng-Ji Chen, 2022. "Choices of Specialties and Training Sites among Taiwanese Physicians Graduating from Polish Medical Schools," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-11, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4652-:d:377445. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.