Volume three, Issue 2

Have you ever been challenged by someone who says that there realy isn't any difference between rural and urban health? Perhaps their perspective is more framed by their 'holidays in the countryside' than by the facts of day to day rural life. This evidence from Pakistan on the high level of stunting, wasting and underweight amongst rural children, especially girls, is extremely confronting. It reminds us that there is still a lot of work for us all to overcome the underlying causes of health disadvantage in our rural communities.

It is said that a health service is the 'heart' of a rural community. This paper demonstrates that it is also a major economic engine, and provides a useful way to quantify this - very useful for rural advocates to use in arguing their case to government.

Accessing health services in a rural community can be difficult enough, without the addition of language and cultural barriers. This article examines the health service utilisation of women born in the Philippines, but now living in rural Queensland, and finds that, whilst some of their difficulties are frustratingly predictable, others may not be obvious without taking the time to ask.

Are you involved in implementing a new health initiative in a rural community and are struggling to find a useful way to evaluate it? This article describes an innovative and useful method of using the literature to develop a simple filter to sift through the mountains of data collected by project managers. The filter is then used in the authors' project to distill some critical issues for successful implementation of rural health service projects. See if it can help you.

Does exposing medical students to rural practice alter their career preferences? Does it help if the student has lived in rural areas previously? Read this useful review to see these authors' considered conclusions.

Is rural workforce policy in your country evidence-based? How can we collect the necessary evidence? Published to co-incide with the pulication of a narrative review of the impact of rural placements on the rural medical workforce, this commentary challenges us to examine the current status of rural workforce policy decision making and provides suggestions on a way forward to meet the challenge.

Have you ever been given responsibility to upgrade a significant web-based database? Its not an easy task. This article describes how a group from Australia undertook this task for two rural research and education databases. They also show how common web-searching techniques can miss a significant amount of relevant rural literature. If you know of other rural databases that may help our readers, please let us know.

Have you been frustrated when a patient refuses to comply with the treatment you have prescribed and you see their illness progressing un-necessarily? Have you blamed yourself, and your lack of time to properly explain the importance of your treatment plan? This article proposes a new and helpful way to look at compliance as a symptom of a far greater systemic dysjunction, especially in cross-cultural contexts that are common to remote practitioners. It will make you think!

As both an exporter and importer in the international trade of qualified doctors, South Africa finds itself in an ethical, financial, and health outcome dilemma. And, as usual, the impact of this is greatest in the rural communities. Read the article and see if your view on this controversial subject stays the same.

Do you have difficulty staffing your rural hospital? So do many health services in South Africa. Read this article to see what they have done about it and what one author sees as a sustainable way forward.

The mad dash to hospital of a terrified husband with his wife in labour is the Hollywood-style example of an issue that is important for all rural health professionals. Implicit in the primary health care model, and common knowledge to rural health professionals, is that effective approaches to health must be inter-sectoral. This article from South Africa looks at the transport issues for both patients and staff that must be considered if we want to create effective and accessible rural health care systems.

Having difficulty attracting a good doctor to your community? Perhaps appropriate accomodation is what is missing. This article gives an African perspective on this important recruitment issue. How does this work where you live? We would be interested in views from other regions of the world. Start a thread in the Discussion Forum on the RRH site, or contact us at ejrh@deakin.edu.au

Journal Search brings Rural and Remote Health users a selection of relevant recent abstracts from MEDLINE. This month's themes are rural: cardiac management, and disease and disability in developing nations.

Journal Search brings Rural and Remote Health users a selection of relevant recent abstracts from MEDLINE. This month's themes are rural: medical workforce and training; nutrition in maternal and child health; obstetrics; and public health.