To the Editor: I applaud Leach and colleagues for their recent article examining lost opportunities with Australia’s health workforce.1 There are many lost opportunities in the area of rural health. National and international studies have documented that a health professional with rural origins is more likely to return to a rural area to work than a colleague who grew up in the city.2,3 My research over the past 4 years looks predominantly at primary school students and their parents, teachers and governesses who reside over 800 000 km2 of outback Australia and study by distance education. My research is mainly into primary school-aged students because it is generally agreed among career development theorists that students start to shape ideas about occupations long before they reach high school.4
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- School of Education, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD.
- 1. Leach MJ, Segal L, May E. Lost opportunities with Australia’s health workforce? Med J Aust 2010; 193: 167-172. <MJA full text>
- 2. Hensel JM, Shandling M, Redelmeier DA. Rural medical students at urban medical schools: too few and far between? Open Med 2007; 1: e13-17.
- 3. Humphreys JS, Prideaux DJ, Beilby JJ, Glasgow NJ. From medical school to medical practice: a national tracking system to underpin planning for a sustainable medical workforce in Australasia. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 244-245. <MJA full text>
- 4. Watson M, McMahon M. Children’s career development: a research review from a learning perspective. J Vocat Behav 2005; 67: 119-132.
- 5. Gorton S. An innovative project addresses the shortage of health professionals in rural/remote Australia. RACP News Oct 2009; 38-39.
- 6. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Education access: National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2000. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/pdf/human_rights/rural_remote/Access_final.pdf (accessed Oct 2010).
- 7. Bradley D, Noonan P, Nugent H, Scales B. Review of Australian Higher Education: Final Report. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2008. http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Review/Documents/PDF/Higher%20Education%20Review_one%20document_02.pdf (accessed Oct 2010).
- 8. Alloway N, Gilbert P, Gilbert R, Muspratt S. Factors impacting on student aspirations and expectations in regional Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2004. http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/other_publications/regional_student_aspirations.htm (accessed Oct 2010).