Recruitment, retention and turnover of allied health professionals in rural and remote areas: a quantitative scoping review

Early Abstract:

Introduction: Complex challenges exist in the recruitment, retention and turnover of allied health professionals in rural and remote areas which negatively impacts the provision of services. The aim of this review was to synthesise evidence from studies with a quantitative component to examine the length of stay of allied health professionals, and significant factors and costs associated with the recruitment, retention and turnover of the rural and remote allied health workforce.
Methods: Six databases were searched, along with grey literature to identify studies using a quantitative approach or a mixed method approach with a quantitative component. Included studies had to report on either: recruitment, retention, turnover, length of stay or associated costs of allied health professionals in rural or remote settings. Data for each study including costs, employment duration and factors affecting recruitment, retention and turnover were extracted. The data was further examined to identify if there were any significant relationships between identified factors and recruitment, retention and turnover. Factors were then assigned into two overarching categories of ‘personal’ and ‘organisational’ and then grouped into further subcategories.
Results: Twenty-four articles were included in the review. A variety of methods were used to measure length of stay. Overall, findings indicated that length of stay for rural and remote allied health professionals was often short with survival rates dropping substantially after two years of employment. Only two studies measured costs, and both indicated a relatively high cost associated with workforce turnover. A range of personal and organisational factors were identified that significantly impacted upon the recruitment, retention and turnover of allied health professionals in rural and remote areas.
Conclusions: This review highlighted length of stay, personal and organisational factors influencing recruitment, retention and turnover and the associated costs. However, limited evidence available on costs indicates a need for more research to be undertaken in this area. A variety of methods were used to measure length of stay, recruitment, retention and turnover, and currently a standardised framework does not exist to collectively synthesise data. Therefore, future research should focus on developing, and then using a rigorous framework to better aid synthesisation of data analysis to inform practice and policy.
Keywords: Allied health occupations, recruitment, retention, rural health services, remote health services, turnover, workforce.