Volume thirteen, Issue 4

Faecal incontinence can have a debilitating impact on quality of life - so say these Australian researchers who used a postal survey to establish prevalence among residents of north and far north Queensland.

There are many competing health issues in isolated First Nations communities; applying lessons learned from other similar communities can help address this challenge. This article focuses on a retrospective review of mitigation processes applied in a pH1N1 pandemic planning process within a First Nations community.

Barriers to care are a problem for many in rural and remote settings. There are also barriers to participation in the clinical trials that can shape healthcare delivery. The authors explore this important rural-versus-urban perspective.

What risky behaviours place rural Sri Lankan adolescents at risk of contact with the emerging global public health problem leptospirosis?

Know your population: how infant immunization was boosted among hard-to-reach Tanzanian nomadic groups.

Do bonded rural scholarships translate to a sustained allied health workforce boost, or is more needed to integrate and retain graduates? Scholarship holders and their managers have their say.

What are the barriers to rural Australian men's participation in research? This combination of qualitative material from a small advisory group with a review of the narrative inquiry literature provides a wealth of information for rural health researchers.

Health-related travel is often at significant personal and financial cost to rural people. But what about measuring the cost to all of us in carbon? This innovative publication breaks this new ground.

Are rural family doctors in Italy effective in their treatment of hypercholesterolemic patients at high cardiovascular risk?

Rural nursing students have lower acceptance rates, but how do they perform during training? And what about students from isolated rural locations? The authors explore rural and urban origin differences in US nursing school and recommend changes in admission and curricula.

Studies of career choice or first practice location are common, but not helpful when compared to the decades of contributions of physicians. Instead, longer term studies are needed to answer important questions. The authors of this article explore whether residents trained "outside" contribute more "outside" where health care services are needed, compared to residents from "inside" or with traditional training.

Why to rural US women have the lowest national rates for colorectal cancer screening?

With Australia's widely dispersed rural populations, is there a better planning tool than 'dentist-to-population ratio' when assessing access to dental services?

Language barriers are a major problem in many rural areas. But when physicians do speak French, do they locate among populations that are in need of French languages physicians? Authors illustrate the example of Ontario.

What's it like to be a learner? West Australian interns compared rural hospital rotations with an urban teaching-hospital environment, in physical, emotional and intellectual dimensions.

Mobile clinics are typically for patients without regular sources of care. Studies of such populations can indicate needs that are not met. These authors have outlined the past few years of healthcare delivery at the Remote Area Medical clinic in Southwest Virginia.

There is extensive debate and discussion about successful processes to recruit new graduates to underserved areas including rural locations. The authors completed a scoping review of relevant interprofessional practice articles to look for some answers--read this article to discover what they found out.

This case report not only reflects the clinical challenges of rural practice, but also what can be achieved in rural hospital medicine.

Cervical cancer impairs or ends too many lives worldwide. Higher income, urban, highly educated women can be overscreened at high cost for little result. Meanwhile lower income, rural, less educated women have little or no screening. These authors share their experience in cervical cancer prevention efforts in Bolivia.