Publications by authors named "A MacLaren"

Background: The challenges of recruiting and retaining rural GPs are well described. UK data suggests high levels of burnout, characterised by detachment, exhaustion and cynicism, plays a role in GP turnover. The contrast is engagement with work.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Documenting changes in the distribution and abundance of a given taxon requires historical data. In the absence of long-term monitoring data collected throughout the range of a taxon, conservation biologists often rely on preserved museum specimens to determine the past or present, putative geographic distribution. Distributional data for the Houston Toad () has consistently been confounded by similarities with a sympatric congener, the Dwarf American Toad (), both in monitoring data derived from chorusing surveys, and in historical data via museum specimens.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Healthcare provision in rural areas is a global challenge, characterised by a dispersed patient population, difficulties in the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals and a physical distance from hospital care. This research brings together both public and doctor perspectives to explore the experience of healthcare across rural Scotland, against the backdrop of contemporary crises, including a global pandemic and extreme weather events. We draw on two studies on rural healthcare provision to understand how healthcare services have been experienced, changed and might move on after periods of short- and longer-term change caused by such crises.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Limited data exist on the effect of travelling time on post-diagnosis cancer care and mortality. We analysed the impact of travel time to cancer treatment centre on secondary care contact time and one-year mortality using a data-linkage study in Scotland with 17369 patients. Patients with longer travelling time and island-dwellers had increased incidence rate of secondary care cancer contact time.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recruitment and retention of medical practitioners is a challenging contemporary issue for rural and remote areas. In this paper, we explore the importance of what it is that doctors value in rural and remote places from their own personal, organisational, social and spatial lives. We do this by drawing on original research from Scotland that explored doctors' decisions on choosing, or not, to work in remote and rural locations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF