Retaining rural doctors: Doctors' preferences for rural medical workforce incentives

Many governments have implemented incentive programs to improve the retention of doctors in rural areas despite a lack of evidence of their effectiveness. This study examines rural general practitioners' (GPs') preferences for different types of retention incentive policies using a discret...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Social science & medicine (1982) 2014-11, Vol.121, p.56-64
Main Authors:	Li, Jinhu, Scott, Anthony, McGrail, Matthew, Humphreys, John, Witt, Julia
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Attrition Australia Biological and medical sciences Choice Behavior Choices Decision theory Discrete choice experiment Doctors Effectiveness Employment General Practitioners - economics General Practitioners - psychology Health Manpower - economics Health participants Humans Incentives Medical sciences Medicine Miscellaneous Motivation Payments Physicians Preferences Probability Professional Practice Location Public health. Hygiene Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine Retention Rural Rural Areas Rural Health Services - economics Rural Health Services - manpower Skills Surveys and Questionnaires Training Wage incentives
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Summary:	Many governments have implemented incentive programs to improve the retention of doctors in rural areas despite a lack of evidence of their effectiveness. This study examines rural general practitioners' (GPs') preferences for different types of retention incentive policies using a discrete choice experiment (DCE). In 2009, the DCE was administered to a group of 1720 rural GPs as part of the “Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL)” study. We estimate both a mixed logit model and a generalized multinomial logit model to account for different types of unobserved differences in GPs' preferences. Our results indicate that increased level of locum relief incentive, retention payments and rural skills loading leads to an increase in the probability of attracting GPs to stay in rural practice. The locum relief incentive is ranked as the most effective, followed by the retention payments and rural skills loading payments. These findings are important in helping to tailor retention policies to those that are most effective. •We examine rural doctors' preferences for different rural retention incentives.•A discrete choice experiment is used to examine doctors' preferences.•Locum relief incentive, retention payments and rural skills loading are effective.•Locum relief incentive is the most effective policy in rural retention.•Retention payments policy is more effective than rural skills loading.
ISSN:	0277-9536 1873-5347