Volume eighteen, Issue 4

In Papua New Guinea, a public–private partnership (PPP) between the National Department of Health in Papua New Guinea, the Australian Government and the Oil Search Foundation allowed the formation of a Reproductive Health Training Unit to provide health worker training in obstetric care. This study evaluates how well the PPP meets the target of improving the competence of front-line health workers in obstetric care service provision in Papua New Guinea.

Specific and targeted intervention is needed to reduce the relatively high maternal mortality and morbidity in Indonesia, especially for socially disadvantaged women and women living in rural areas. This study assessed patterns and sociodemographic determinants of self-reported maternal morbidity in rural and urban areas.

There is evidence that medical students with rural backgrounds are more likely than their urban peers to enter rural practice, but what happens to career intentions during medical school is less well established. This study assessed how rural intentions persist or change during medical school and sought factors associated with either persistence or change in rural intention.

Patients who experience an ST-elevation myocardial infarction due to an occluded coronary artery require prompt treatment. Geographical and organisational barriers may influence access to treatment in remote areas, but these are not well understood. This study compares the characteristics of treatment delivery in central and remote locations in the North of Scotland and identifies potential barriers to optimal care with a view to service redesign.

This study comprised two cross-sectional population-based surveys comparing the prevalence of diabetes mellitus between Sami and non-Sami inhabitants of Northern Norway. The total age standardised prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 10.0% and 11.2% respectively in 2003-2003 and 2012-2014 with no ethnic difference.

The Solomon Islands presents a unique profile of challenges to surgical practice, including the impact of Dengue infection, dispersal of patients across the islands and difficult access to pathology services. This study reports on the gynaecological conditions affecting women in the Solomon Islands.

In Sudan, home birth remains a strong preference and village midwives are the only option for maternal and neonatal care for many rural women. This study examined the factors that improved service delivery and strengthened the capacity of community midwives for home births.

The increasing shortage of rural physicians is an issue in most western countries. This study explored physicians’ subjective perceptions of rurality and reports on strategies to resolve the physician shortage in rural areas.

In response to rural medical workforce shortages in Thailand, the Collaborative Project to Increase production of Rural Doctors (CPIRD) is seeking to develop a Thai Rural Community-Based Medical Education (RCBME) program in the Southern region of Thailand. This study explores stakeholder expectations of the Southern Thai RCBME.

Advanced Care Planning (ACP) and Advanced Care Directives (ACDs) play a vital role in preparing for end-of-life care. However, current literature suggests that uptake of ACP and ACDs in rural Australia is low. This study provides a current perspective on the attitudes and practices of healthcare workers from Residential Aged Care Facilities towards ACP and ACDs in the Central West, Far West and Orana regions of NSW, Australia.

Public health doctors (PHD) in South Korea serve the medically underserved region of South Korea as part of national service duty, but their number has been declining in recent years due to changes in medical education. This study investigates the appropriateness of PHD tasks in South Korea.

The Rural Primary Health Services Delivery Project aims to improve the quality and coverage of health services to rural populations in Papua New Guinea, but there are limitations in measuring the performance of such projects. This article describes a performance assessment framework that might be applied to evaluations of other health service delivery programs in similar contexts.

Remote communities across Australia lack the ready access to medical care generally afforded to metropolitan populations. The Royal Flying Doctor Service Medical Chest Program provides medical resources to these communities allowing medications to be dispensed in conjunction with a telehealth consulting service. This study reveiewed the use of the medical chest model within the state of Queensland.

Since 2010, the Chinese government has been introducing a selective admission policy to recruit rural students for undergraduate medical education in order to improve the medical services in the rural townships of western China. This study analyzed the selective admission policy in western China from the perspective of medical students' attitudes towards a rural career choice.

In Japan, the community medicine clerkship was introduced to foster positive attitudes towards rural practice and encourage rural recruitment. This study measured attitudes towards rural practice in a group of medical students at a Japanese university.

In Japanese medical schools, a special regional quota (chiikiwaku) system has been widely implemented to increase the number of physicians in medically underserved areas. This study investigated the willingness of final-year regional quota students to remain in medically underserved areas after their obligatory practice period.

A health visitor’s ability to assess and analyse aspects of family resilience in daily practice is essential to enable practitioners to support families, facilitate positive lifestyle choices and improve child health and developmental outcomes. This study explored the concept of family resilience as understood by health visitors in Wales, generating data for use in a Family Resilience assessment tool and instrument.

Over the past 25 years, there has been significant attrition of small volume rural surgery in Western Canada. This commentary describes a program, collaboratively designed by key stakeholders, to overcome challenges in building effective networks for the sustainable delivery of rural surgical care.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) referral, access and attendance are low for all people who live in rural and remote areas. This integrative review identifies barriers, enablers and pathways to CR for adults living independently in rural and remote areas of high-income countries, including Australia.

Agricultural accidents are a prominent cause of mortality and morbidity in rural areas, but are little studied. This case report describes a subtotal leg amputation that occurred after a hoeing machine accident in 2015 in Malatya, eastern Turkey.

This study reviews the prevalence of pit and fissure sealing after its inclusion in the list of treatments covered by national health insurance in South Korea and investigates whether there is a difference in number of treatments between rural and urban areas.

Many guidelines outline best practices for health program monitoring and evaluation (M&E), but best practices are often not resourced or feasible. This paper describes how M&E has been conducted for a health service delivery improvement program in remote Papua New Guinea and outlines lessons learned.