Factors associated with Australian female doctors' long term, as opposed to short term, rural Family Medicine work.

Objective: In light of current debate around securing and distributing the General Practitioner (GP) workforce in Australia, we analysed rural health workforce data to identify characteristics associated with long-term tenure for rural female GPs, an importantly lacking part of the rural workforce in Australia.

Methods: In this cohort study, 555 currently practicing rural female GPs with long, versus short, rural work histories were surveyed annually. Their data were compared.

Glass half full: Survival analysis of new rural doctor retention in Western Australia.

Objective: To measure the time trends in retention of new rural doctors in Western Australia (WA) and identify factors associated with improved retention.

Design: Retrospective inception cohort study of the 1154 doctors first commencing rural practice in WA in 2004-2013, who provided 1222 tours of service consisting of up to eight attachments at different rural practice settings.

Main Outcome Measure: Failure of doctor retention as evidenced by an absence from the rural medical workforce of greater than 1 year and analysed using actuarial survival methods and Cox proportional hazards regression.