Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Recruitment and retention of health professionals

Grow Your Own Toolkit: A Guide to Implementing Workforce Strategies in Washington State's Rural Health Systems
A toolkit for creating grow your own workforce programs for addressing rural healthcare workforce shortages in Washington. Discusses strategies, collaboration opportunities, and implementation tips. Includes case studies from around Washington.
Author(s): Talia Horacek, Sarah Gambrill
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Washington State Department of Health
view details
Exploring Healthcare Provider Retention in a Rural and Frontier Community in Northern Idaho
Examines factors related to healthcare provider retention in rural and remote areas of Idaho. Utilizes questionnaire data from 30 healthcare providers and focuses on themes such as geography, economics, scope of practice, medical support, and facility and community support.
Author(s): Jonathan D. Moore, Allie M. Lords, Madeline P. Casanova, et al.
Citation: BMC Health Services Research, 24, 381
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
view details
No Vacancy: How Dartmouth Health is Solving Workforce Shortages
Interviews the Director of Workforce Development at a primarily rural healthcare system in Vermont and New Hampshire. Discusses workforce retention programs, training, and a partnership with a local college. Offers lessons learned for other systems interested in training and retention programs. Transcript available beneath the podcast player.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
view details
Nursing Home Workforce Issues and Inequities
Offers an overview of issues related to the direct care workforce in nursing homes including staffing shortages, recruitment and retention, low wages, job training, interdisciplinary care, and more. Discusses proposed policies offering workforce-related reforms. Discusses rural throughout.
Author(s): Jasmine L. Travers, Rita Choula, Edem Hado
Date: 02/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: AARP Public Policy Institute
view details
Physician and Advanced Practice Clinician Burnout in Rural and Urban Settings
Describes burnout and contributing work conditions among physicians and advanced practice clinicians, using data from an anonymous electronic survey conducted in March 2022. Explores the effect of COVID-19 on health workforce burnout, and features statistics with breakdowns by urban and rural areas.
Author(s): Melissa L. Harry, Nancy L. Sudak, Mary J. Engels, et al.
Citation: The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 37(1), 43-58
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
view details
Pennsylvania Hospital Workforce Survey
Examines Pennsylvania hospitals' efforts to recruit and retain talented workers, using data from a survey conducted in October and November 2023. Describes how care is evolving to support providers and patients, examines healthcare professional shortages, and offers strategies to eliminate violence against healthcare professionals. Features statistics on vacancy rates, with breakdown by rural areas.
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
view details
Needs Assessment of the Obstetric Workforce in Maine's Rural Hospitals
Report assessing the workforce needs for 15 hospitals with obstetrics units in rural Maine. Offers a SWOT Analysis and discusses factors contributing to sustainability of the workforce, community characteristics impacting the workforce, recruitment and retention challenges, and training challenges. Offers recommendations at the state, regional, health system, hospital, and unit level.
Author(s): Brianna Keefe-Oates, Katherine Simmonds, Louisa H. Smith, Jeni Stolow
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: MaineHealth, Roux Institute, The Maine Rural Maternity & Obstetrics Management Strategies Network
view details
Clinician Burnout in Rural & Tribal Communities
An infographic that describes clinician burnout in rural and tribal areas, with a focus on staffing challenges, cultural and community factors, scope of practice, continuity of care issues, and related resources and strategies to mitigate challenges.
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Health Service Corps
view details
Closing the Gap: How a Community Effort Can Improve Rural Maternity Care
Case study of a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) that increased access to maternal healthcare in rural North Carolina by opening a maternity care center. Discusses recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals and collaboration among healthcare organizations in the community.
Author(s): Jesus Ruiz
Citation: Annals of Family Medicine, 22(1), 68
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
view details
Informing the Surgical Workforce Pathway: How Rural Community Characteristics Matter
Explores meanings associated with community characteristics by rural and urban surgeons, utilizing interview data from 22 rural and 15 urban general surgeons in the Midwest. Identifies rural-urban differences in approach to physical environment, health resources, and professional/personal community roles. Discusses implications for surgeons' practice location choices and surgical workforce education and recruitment.
Author(s): Dorothy Hughes, Joshua Mammen, Tomas L Griebling, Joanna Veazey Brooks
Citation: Remote and Rural Health, 24(1), 8363
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
view details