How will this survey change medical workforce management?
Overcoming medical workforce shortages and maldistribution remains critical in Australia.1 Numerous government initiatives have targeted these issues.2 Despite recent modest progress in increasing the supply of doctors to underserved regions,3 overall success has been limited.4
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- 1. Health Workforce Australia. Health Workforce 2025: doctors, nurses and midwives — Volume 1. Adelaide: HWA, 2012.
- 2. Australian National Audit Office. Rural and Remote Health Workforce Capacity – the contribution made by programs administered by the Department of Health and Ageing. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2009.
- 3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Medical workforce 2011. Canberra: AIHW, 2013. (AIHW Cat. No. HWL 49; National Health Workforce Series No. 3.)
- 4. Buykx P, Humphreys JS, Wakerman J, Pashen D. A systematic review of effective retention incentives for health workers in rural and remote areas: towards evidence-based policy. Aust J Rural Health 2010; 18: 102-109.
- 5. Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. Medical Schools Outcomes Database [project website]. http://www.medicaldeans.org.au/medical-schools-outcomes-database (accessed Feb 2013).
- 6. Humphreys JS, Prideaux D, Beilby J, Glasgow NJ. From medical school to medical practice — a national tracking system to underpin planning for a sustainable medical workforce in Australia. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 244-245.
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- 8. Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. Minister praises project. Outcomes: Medical Schools Outcomes Database and Longitudinal Tracking (MSOD) Project 2012; Issue 7. http://www.medicaldeans.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MSOD_2012_12_-Issue_7.pdf (accessed May 2013).
- 9. Gerber JP, Landau LI. Driving change in rural workforce planning: the Medical Schools Outcomes Database. Aust J Prim Health 2010; 16: 36-39.
- 10. Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. MSOD Project: inaugural research forum. Forum report. Sydney: MDANZ, 2012. http://www.medicaldeans.org. au/wp-content/uploads/2011-Inaugural-Research-Forum-Report-FINAL.pdf (accessed Feb 2013).
- 11. Jones M, Humphreys J, Prideaux D. Predicting medical students’ intentions to take up rural practice after graduation. Med Educ 2009; 43: 1001-1009.
- 12. Hays R. The utilisation of the health care system for authentic early experience placements. Rural Remote Health 2013. In press.
- 13. Jones M, Humphreys J, Prideaux D, MacGrail M. Why does a rural background make medical students more likely to intend to work in rural areas and how consistent is the effect? A study of the rural background effect. Aust J Rural Health 2012; 20: 29-34.
- 14. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. 14th International Health Workforce Collaborative 2013. Poster abstracts. http://rcpsc.medical.org/publicpolicy/imwc/conference14.php (accessed May 2013).
- 15. Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. MSOD report: spatial mapping medical schools and student origins. http://www.medicaldeans.org.au/wp-content/uploads/APHCRI-Final-Report.pdf (accessed Feb 2013).
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We are grateful to the medical schools, stakeholder organisations, medical students, graduates and doctors who participated in the MSOD Project. The project was possible due to funding made available by Health Workforce Australia (2011 onwards) and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2004–2011).
As well as being employed by the Australian National University as Dean of Medicine and Health Sciences and Dean of the Medical School, Nicholas Glasgow is Chair of the MSOD Project Board and Treasurer of Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc.