Volume nine, Issue 1

Current rural clinical school students who have chosen to spend an exciting time during their clinical training in the bush are among the best advertisements for a career in rural Autralia. This positive study might present a "rose tinted" view of life in the country as a Western Australian medical student, but it does provide more evidence and data to encourage future students to "go rural".

To revitalise the ageing and depleted RN workforce in Australian rural areas, many recruitment strategies are required, including training people in their own community. This article shows how a regional university used an innovative workshop to convert 63% of potential nursing students into actual enrolments.

Too often public health planning fails to address health inequalities. This review from Australia shows that worldwide strategies to prevent and address pandemic influenza disregard disadvantaged populations. For Indigenous Australians this neglect could be fatal because strategies fail to take into account community realities, including the impact of history.

Focus groups among rural community residents in British Columbia, Canada were conducted to find out about their experiences with Primary Health Care services. Read this article to find out what was said about access, inequity and continuation of care.

Occupational therapists, like all health professionals, are in short supply in rural areas. This literature review echoes for OTs the lessons we have learned about the rural medical workforce and the potential positive impact of curriculum and rural placement.

Appropriate pre-hospital thrombolysis can be life-saving, especially for rural MI patients. What then are the barriers to providing this essential therapy - and how can they be overcome? This Scottish GP study identifies some thought-provoking human and system factors.

A farm injury affects not only the immediate family but also the community where the injured farmer lives. This article from Australia shows that better progress could be made in educating farmers to look out for their own safety.

For a fresh look at student selection and the within-course experiences most likely to provide committed rural practitioners, this compact report of a large study by Australia's newest medical school has much to offer.

In resource-low rural areas of the developing world, culture and sensitivity for all re-treatment TB patients is not feasible. This helpful study informed by India's RNTCP methodology suggests which patient groups to target.

People who live in remote areas have a higher rate of melanoma yet a poorer outcome. This pilot study of an Australian Royal Flying Doctor intervention suggests skin cancer care need not be compromised by geographical location.

Asian cultures have developed childbirth customs over thousands of years and these are different from contemporary perinatal care in Australia. This excellent Tasmanian qualitative study helps us understand the perinatal health care likely to be desired by Asian mothers.

With a worldwide increase in skin cancers, rural GPs must be prepared to diagnose and treat the potentially lethal Merkel cell carcinoma. The regimen outlined in this case report from remote France offers such patients the greatest chance of survival.

For those interested in providing mandatory education for rural health professionals, this report from Idaho, USA is a must read.

In rural primary care a number of factors, such as a patient's needs and the seriousness of their disease, determine hospital referral. Aside from patient factors, have you ever considered whether locum doctors and regular GPs have different patterns of referral? This interesting Norwegian study did just that.

How can we describe rural nursing practice? What are some examples of threats to clinical expertise in rural areas? This Canadian study answers these questions and more...