The Road to Rural Primary Care: A Narrative Review of Factors That Help Develop, Recruit, and Retain Rural Primary Care Physicians.

Purpose: To examine the literature documenting successes in recruiting and retaining rural primary care physicians.

Method: The authors conducted a narrative review of literature on individual, educational, and professional characteristics and experiences that lead to recruitment and retention of rural primary care physicians. In May 2016, they searched MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science, Google Scholar, the Grey Literature Report, and reference lists of included studies for literature published in or after 1990 in the United States, Canada, or Australia.