Rural and Remote Health is an open-access international academic journal serving rural and remote communities and publishing articles by rural health practitioners, educators, researchers and policy makers.

This Letter to the Editor responds to a recent <i>Rural and Remote Health</i> article about the clinical courage in rural doctors. The authors reflect on how courage relates to community, culture and care for rural doctors in the Philippines.

It is well established that medical students enrolled in a rural clinical school (RCS), particularly those who also have a rural background, are more likely to work rurally than medical students who only undertake metropolitan-based training. In response to rural workforce shortages in Western Victoria, Australia, the Deakin University Medical School introduced a rural training stream (RTS) to specifically recruit students from the local rural area and train them in the same region, with the aim that they will become local rural clinicians. To augment the introduction of the RTS, an innovative 3-day rural immersion program was developed to provide students with practical experience and knowledge about the RCS environment and help with preferencing decisions. This Policy Report contributes to the literature on medical students’ RCS preferencing decisions and presents students’ perceptions of the rural immersion program.

In Bangladesh, nearly 70% of people live in rural areas and face difficulties accessing health care because of low availability of providers and the high costs of care. To mitigate this situation, the Bangladesh government hired more than 6000 physicians in 2014, but whether this increased access and improved health status for rural people has not been studied to date. This Original Research article presents one of the first studies to assess the impacts of physician recruitment on access to care and the health status of rural people in Bangladesh. 

Rural and remote health in Australia relies on a consistent health workforce to service the population, but attracting and maintaining health professionals to work in rural locations is a well-documented and ongoing issue. Although allied health professionals are an important part of the health workforce, previous studies have identified a perceived lower priority for research into the allied health workforce compared with the medical workforce. This Scoping review identifies, describes and addresses workforce recruitment and retention issues and initiatives for allied health professionals in rural and remote Australia.