Jessica A. Paynter, Kirby R. Qin, David Hunter‐Smith, Janelle Brennan, Warren Rozen
{"title":"Rural general surgical provision from the perspective of twenty‐two rural general surgeons: a thematic analysis","authors":"Jessica A. Paynter, Kirby R. Qin, David Hunter‐Smith, Janelle Brennan, Warren Rozen","doi":"10.1111/ans.19229","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"BackgroundAustralia continues to suffer from a geographical maldistribution of general surgical services with only 20% of general surgeons working rurally despite 29% of Australia's population residing outside major metropolitan centres. This qualitative study explored the impact of human capacity and infrastructure upon rural general surgery provision.MethodsThis qualitative study employed semi‐structured interviews of rural general surgeons. Participants were recruited via the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Rural newsletter and purposive sampling. All interviews were conducted between January 2023 and April 2023. Transcripts were transcribed, de‐identified, and thematically analysed.ResultsTwo female and 20 male rural general surgeons were interviewed from seven of the eight Australian State or Territories. Four main themes were identified which reflected the impact of human capacity and infrastructure upon Australian rural general surgery provision: (1) small hospital syndrome – and the impact, (2) the rural general surgeon identity, (3) infrastructure and disempowerment and (4) over‐reliance on visiting surgeons.ConclusionImproving access to equitable general surgical care for rural Australians requires appropriate infrastructure and a well‐trained, sustainable multidisciplinary surgical team (human capacity). A greater understanding of the issues may help drive rational, long‐term supportive solutions.","PeriodicalId":8158,"journal":{"name":"ANZ Journal of Surgery","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ANZ Journal of Surgery","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.19229","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SURGERY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
BackgroundAustralia continues to suffer from a geographical maldistribution of general surgical services with only 20% of general surgeons working rurally despite 29% of Australia's population residing outside major metropolitan centres. This qualitative study explored the impact of human capacity and infrastructure upon rural general surgery provision.MethodsThis qualitative study employed semi‐structured interviews of rural general surgeons. Participants were recruited via the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Rural newsletter and purposive sampling. All interviews were conducted between January 2023 and April 2023. Transcripts were transcribed, de‐identified, and thematically analysed.ResultsTwo female and 20 male rural general surgeons were interviewed from seven of the eight Australian State or Territories. Four main themes were identified which reflected the impact of human capacity and infrastructure upon Australian rural general surgery provision: (1) small hospital syndrome – and the impact, (2) the rural general surgeon identity, (3) infrastructure and disempowerment and (4) over‐reliance on visiting surgeons.ConclusionImproving access to equitable general surgical care for rural Australians requires appropriate infrastructure and a well‐trained, sustainable multidisciplinary surgical team (human capacity). A greater understanding of the issues may help drive rational, long‐term supportive solutions.
期刊介绍:
ANZ Journal of Surgery is published by Wiley on behalf of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to provide a medium for the publication of peer-reviewed original contributions related to clinical practice and/or research in all fields of surgery and related disciplines. It also provides a programme of continuing education for surgeons. All articles are peer-reviewed by at least two researchers expert in the field of the submitted paper.