Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr; 17(8): 2698.Published online 2020 Apr 14. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17082698PMCID: PMC7216161PMID: 32295246
The Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework: A Guide for Addressing Health Workforce Challenges in the Rural Context
April 14, 2020
[Excerpts]
Health professionals’ decisions to stay or leave a rural position are multifaceted involving personal, organisational, social and spatial aspects. While current rural health workforce frameworks/models recognise the multidimensional and interrelated influences on retention, they are often highly complex and do not easily support the development of strategic actions.
The ‘Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework’ (WoP-RIF) has three domains: Workplace/Organisational, Role/Career and Community/Place. The necessary pre-conditions for improving retention through strengthening job and personal satisfaction levels are set out under each domain. The WoP-RIF offers a person-centred, holistic structure that encourages whole-of-community responses that address individual and workforce level needs. It is a significant response to, and resource for, addressing avoidable rural health workforce turnover that rural health services and communities can harness in-place.
In the literature, job satisfaction is strongly correlated with increased retention. Retention has also been found to be contingent on the extrinsic rewards provided by the employer (e.g. salary and work conditions) and the intrinsic rewards that come from within the individual, which are derived from the role and the work being performed (e.g., degree of autonomy and/or challenge).
For rural and remote allied health professionals, the most cited extrinsic factors with a negative influence on retention are lack of professional development opportunities, professional isolation and insufficient supervision, while the most cited intrinsic factors with a positive influence on retention are autonomy and community connectedness [9]. However, recent analyses posit that health professionals’ decisions to stay or leave a rural health position (retention/turnover) are complex and influenced by ‘a myriad of highly interactive dimensions within personal, organisational, social and spatial domains’.
Dr Catherine Cosgrave PhD
Cosgrave C. The Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework: A Guide for Addressing Health Workforce Challenges in the Rural Context. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(8):2698. Published 2020 Apr 14. doi:10.3390/ijerph17082698
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The Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework: A Guide for Addressing Health Workforce Challenges in the Rural Context