Rural temperament and character: a new perspective on retention of rural doctors.

Objective: This exploratory study serves as a starting point to establish a psychobiological profile for rural GPs. The overall aim is to describe how individual levels and combinations of temperament (mildly heritable) and character (influenced by sociocultural learning) traits allow GPs to flourish or fail in rural medicine.

Design: In a mixed-method study, 13 rural GPs (rural and remote metropolitan areas 5-7, minimum 7 years of experience) from Central/Southern Queensland, Australia completed the Temperament and Character Inventory-R140 to identify the intensity of the seven basic dimensions of temperament and character.

Medical students and rural general practitioners: congruent views on the reality of recruitment into rural medicine.

Objective: In-depth exploration of the perceptions, experiences and expectations of current long-term rural GPs and medical students intent on a rural career, regarding the current and future state of rural medicine.

Design: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews.

Setting: Rural and remote towns in Central and Southern Queensland and the School of Medicine, University of Queensland.