2005 Rural Health Workforce Survey

The 2005 Rural Health Workforce Survey
Date of publication: October 2006

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Summary
The 2005 Rural Health Workforce Survey provides a snapshot - in - time of the rural health workforce in 2005.

The survey was commissioned by the Ministry to provide information on the rural health workforce to inform policy and funding decisions, as well as to highlight issues to assist future planning of rural services by district health boards and primary health organisations.

Rural health practitioners surveyed were general practice managers, general practitioners, primary health care nurses, community pharmacy managers, community pharmacists and midwives. The study relies predominantly on survey data that is self-reported by practices and practitioners.

Key findings

The Rural Ranking Scale currently provides GPs with an agreed definition of ‘rural’, which is lacking with the other health professionals.
A number of rural general practices close to cities have reduced their on-call workload by having the nearby urban centre provide after hours coverage.
These reductions in on-call workloads may have an impact on GPs’ Rural Ranking Scale scores and rural bonus payments.
Rural practice managers expressed a range of positive and negative views on the impact of the implementation of the Primary Health Care Strategy. The strongest theme to emerge, expressed by the majority of the practices, was concerns about increased paperwork and compliance costs.
Compared to the 2002 workforce survey, the ratio of rural primary health care nurses to rural GPs has increased. This could be due to increasing numbers of nurses taking on expanded roles in primary care, to a reducing rural GP workforce, or to more part-time nurses in 2005.
General practices reported that a wide range of strategies had been employed to improve working conditions in rural general practice using the two rural funding streams (Reasonable Roster Funding and Rural Workforce Recruitment Funding).
Only 65% of rural general practices reported receiving Rural Workforce Retention Funding in the last year.
Training: the majority of rural pharmacists (92%), PHCNs (85%) and LMC midwives (64%) were NZ-trained, while the majority of rural GPs (57%) and core midwives (86%) were overseas-trained.
Age Distribution:
1. 73% of rural GPs, 72% of PHCNs, 66% of pharmacists, 76% of LMC midwives and 60% of core midwives were older than 40 years.
2. GPs, nurses and midwives had a bell-shaped age distribution, in contrast to the rather flat age distribution of pharmacists.
Percentage of health professionals planning to leave rural practice within two years and within five years: GPs 14% and 20% (total 34%), PHCNs 10% and 15% (total 25%); pharmacists 18% and 29% (total 47%), LMC midwives 27% and 33% (total 60%) and core midwives 32% and 25% (total 57%), respectively.

Publishing information
Date of publication: October 2006

ISBN 0-478-30084-0

HP number: 4322

Citation: Ministry of Health. 2006. The 2005 Rural Health Workforce Survey. Wellington: Ministry of Health.

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The 2005 Rural Health Workforce Survey

Summary

Publication availability

Publishing information

Related information