Rural healthcare workforce preparation, response, and work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: Lessons learned from in-depth interviews with rural health service leaders

Vanessa J. Watkins, Anna Wong Shee, Michael Field, Laura Alston, Danny Hills, Simon L. Albrecht, Cherene Ockerby and Alison M. Hutchinson

Health Policy, 2024, vol. 145, issue C

Abstract: Low population density, geographic spread, limited infrastructure and higher costs are unique challenges in the delivery of healthcare in rural areas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency powers adopted globally to slow the spread of transmission of the virus included population-wide lockdowns and restrictions upon movement, testing, contact tracing and vaccination programs. The aim of this research was to document the experiences of rural health service leaders as they prepared for the emergency pandemic response, and to derive from this the lessons learned for workforce preparedness to inform recommendations for future policy and emergency planning.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemics; Health policy; Rural health; Workforce; Health services administration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851024000952
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:145:y:2024:i:c:s0168851024000952

DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2024.105085

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu () and ().