Professor J.S. Humphreys, M. Jones, J.A. Jones
The length of time that a health practitioner remains in rural practice is an important component of workforce supply, particularly in rural and remote areas characterised by a shortage of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. Retention grants were recently introduced by the Australian government to reward and retain longstanding rural and remote medical practitioners. However, there exists no theoretical or empirical basis for the current retention grant formulae. This study reports the results of a national survey of general practitioners investigating the role of selected professional and community factors as determinants of the length of time that a medical practitioner is likely to remain in practice. The unique methodology underpinning this study provides a metric which quantifies both the relative and absolute importance attributed to each factor in terms of its influence on how long doctors stay in rural or remote practice. The results demonstrate the extent to which the importance attributed to the various retention factors varies according to geographical location of practice, socio-demographic factors including age, gender, and family status, and practice characteristics including employment status, length of time in the practice; and hospital duties. In the absence of systematic empirical research diagnosing the major causes of turnover, it is difficult to determine the criteria underpinning the allocation of retention incentives. The knowledge gained from this study is critical for inclusion into weightings employed in the development of retention grant allocation formulae and adds significantly to our understanding of why doctors stay in rural practice.