Support
Outcome
To retain health workers in your community for years and establish clear succession plans for if/when they move on.
Why is it important
We should be realistic about how long people will stay in our communities and be ready to activate attraction plans for the next transition.
The aim should be to make the experience so good that health workers stay longer than they expected.
The biggest influence on health worker retention – apart from workloads, access to time-off and professional support – is the strength of connection to the local community.
Steps you can take
- If you treat people as temporary residents, that’s what you’ll get. Help the community to engage and involve health workers in their own networks and social groups.
- Keep dialogue open. If people need a break, activate your plan to bring in relief staff who also get a taste of your town, and might consider a more permanent move in future.
- It’s the little things that cause irritation. Ask: is accommodation being maintained properly? Childcare working out? Partner’s job satisfying? It takes a long time to properly settle into a community and the support phase goes beyond the first few months.
- Identify local support services (e.g. bookkeepers, human resource specialists) who can relieve the administrative burden from private practitioners.
- Encourage providers to collaborate to facilitate local career progression – things like secondments and rotation between sites.
- Watch out for scope creep. If the workload increases because others have left, don’t let this drive the remaining workers away.
Tips
- Study and mirror models that work. For example, some regional medical centres have a sister practice in the city, and rotate health professionals between city and country practices as their life situations change. Don’t assume busy professionals have time to investigate these options.
- Workers from overseas need special attention. We need to be sensitive to culture, and to celebrate the new food, beliefs and experiences these people bring.
- Once you have a GP in place, consider whether a physiotherapist or podiatrist could join the practice – even if part time – to provide professional support and another service to the community.
