Importance of attachment to place in growing a sustainable Australian Rural Health Workforce: A rapid review.

INTRODUCTION: Personal, community, and environmental factors can influence the attraction and retention of regional, rural, and remote health workers. However, the concept of place attachment needs further attention as a factor affecting the sustainability of the rural health workforce. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this rapid review was to explore the influence of a sense of place in attracting and retaining health professionals in rural and remote areas. DESIGN: A systematic rapid review was conducted based on an empirical model using four dimensions: place dependence, place identity, social bonding and nature bonding. English-language publications between 2011 and 2021 were sought from academic databases, including studies relevant to Australian health professionals. FINDINGS: A total of 348 articles were screened and 52 included in the review. Place attachment factors varied across disciplines and included (a) intrinsic place-based personal factors; (b) learning experiences enhancing self-efficacy and rural health work interest; (c) relational, social and community integration; and (d) connection to place with lifestyle aspirations. DISCUSSION: This rapid review provides insight into the role of relational connections in building a health workforce and suggests that community factors are important in building attachment through social bonding and place identity. Results indicate that future health workforce research should focus on career decision-making and psychological appraisals including place attachment. CONCLUSION: An attachment to place might develop through placement experiences or from a strong rural upbringing. The importance of the relational interactions within a work community and the broader community is seen as an important factor in attracting, recruiting, and sustaining a rural health workforce.

Educating the educators: Implementing cultural safety in the nursing and midwifery curriculum.

BACKGROUND: The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council mandates the teaching of cultural safety in Bachelor of Nursing and Midwifery programs in Australia. However nursing and midwifery academics may lack the awareness and knowledge required to share and develop cultural safety practices with their students. Specific cultural safety professional development for academics may be needed. OBJECTIVES: This research explores how nursing and midwifery academics at an Australian university understand cultural safety and whether they are equipped to embed it in the curriculum. It also examines whether professional development workshops can support academics to prepare for cultural safety. METHODS: An intervention involving three cultural safety professional development workshops was offered to nursing academics at an Australian university. The authors used qualitative surveys to consider whether the workshops deepened participants' understanding of cultural safety and developed the self-reflection required to embed cultural safety in teaching. RESULTS: The workshops contributed to participants' improved understandings of culture, colonisation, white privilege and the need for self-reflection, but not all participants developed a working knowledge of cultural safety practice. CONCLUSION: Professional development workshops can assist nursing and midwifery academics to develop their knowledge of cultural safety, but detailed, contextual understanding is likely to need more than three sessions. Academics' motivations to include cultural safety in their teaching may be linked to their desire for patient-driven and equitable services and a desire to meet accreditation requirements.