ABSTRACT Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) involves healthcare workers and/or students from at least two professions working alongside patients, to improve the quality of healthcare provided. IPECP implementation in rural areas, however, lags due to limited resources and workforce shortages. This systematic review was undertaken to identify the enablers and barriers to the implementation of IPECP initiatives in rural healthcare settings. The JBI mixed methods review methodology and PRISMA guidelines were followed. Studies included peer-reviewed articles of IPECP initiatives implemented in rural healthcare settings identified in PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, alongside gray literature searches. Following screening, [...]

Abstract Background/Objectives: Improving health outcomes for Indigenous people by strengthening the cultural safety of care is a vital challenge for the health sector. University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH), academic centres based in regional, rural, and remote (RRR) locations across Australia, are uniquely positioned to foster a culturally safe rural health workforce through training, education, and engagement with Indigenous communities. This narrative review examines the contributions of UDRHs to health workforce issues through analysis of their publications focused on Indigenous health. Methods: Research articles relating to workforce were identified from an established database of UDRH Indigenous health-related publications published 2010–2021. [...]

Community service organisations are increasingly required to report on outcomes and evaluate program delivery. While commonplace in clinical health settings, such work is novel to the community sector and can be challenging to undertake given resourcing and evaluation capacity constraints. These constraints are exacerbated for rural community service organisations that face additional resource pressures and lack organisational systems to support such work. This formative evaluation reports on an evaluation capacity building program within a rural place-based community service organisation in southwest Victoria, Australia. As part of the program, monitoring, evaluation, and learning pilots were implemented to support selected teams (N = 4 [...]

Abstract Introduction Access to preventive care is essential for addressing the stark health inequities between people with intellectual disability and the general population. Despite evidence that structured annual preventive health assessments in primary care can support the delivery of evidence-based care to people with intellectual disability, their uptake remains low. This scoping review synthesises the literature examining the multiple dimensions of access to health assessments to identify the supply- and demand-side factors that are impacting on people with intellectual disability’s access to them. Methods This scoping review followed JBI methodology. We systematically searched six databases on 15 February 2024 for [...]

While community development is locally driven, it can stem from government investment. The Australian government has funded 19 University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) across Australia as one step to address health workforce shortages in rural and remote regions. These UDRHs train students, conduct research and support local health services and communities. While some UDRH contributions have been assessed, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of UDRHs for their rural and remote communities. This paper seeks to understand the impacts of UDRHs through application of the Community Capitals framework. Examples and case studies were developed by senior [...]