Increasing the rural medical workforce: Investigating personal traits to enhance our understanding and improve training of rural registrars (2011-2014)

This project aims to develop a theoretical yet practical understanding of the personal attributes of rural registrars and practitioners directly applicable to their recruitment and retention into rural medical practice. Our innovative approach for addressing the rural medical workforce shortage will employ the theory involving the influence of personal trait profiles to understand the characteristics most conducive to an interest and subsequent success in the unique context of rural medical practice. A better understanding of the personal traits of our potential rural workforce will inform existing training for medical registrars in order to better recruit, equip and retain them for rural practice.