Review of the Health, Welfare and Care Workforce in Tasmania, Australia: 2011–2016

Belinda Jessup, Tony Barnett, Kehinde Obamiro, Merylin Cross and Edwin Mseke
Additional contact information
Belinda Jessup: Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1322, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
Tony Barnett: Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1322, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
Kehinde Obamiro: Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1322, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
Merylin Cross: Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1322, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
Edwin Mseke: Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1322, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Background: On a per capita basis, rural communities are underserviced by health professionals when compared to metropolitan areas of Australia. However, most studies evaluating health workforce focus on discrete professional groups rather than the collective contribution of the range of health, care and welfare workers within communities. The objective of this study was therefore to illustrate a novel approach for evaluating the broader composition of the health, welfare and care (HWC) workforce in Tasmania, Australia, and its potential to inform the delivery of healthcare services within rural communities. Methods: Census data (2011 and 2016) were obtained for all workers involved in health, welfare and care service provision in Tasmania and in each statistical level 4 area (SA4) of the state. Workers were grouped into seven categories: medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry and oral health, health-other, welfare and carers. Data were aggregated for each category to obtain total headcount, total full time equivalent (FTE) positions and total annual hours of service per capita, with changes observed over the five-year period. Results: All categories of the Tasmanian HWC workforce except welfare grew between 2011 and 2016. While this growth occurred in all SA4 regions across the state, the HWC workforce remained maldistributed, with more annual hours of service per capita provided in the Hobart area. Although the HWC workforce remained highly feminised, a move toward gender balance was observed in some categories, including medicine, dentistry and oral health, and carers. The HWC workforce also saw an increase in part-time workers across all categories. Conclusions: Adopting a broad approach to health workforce planning can better reflect the reality of healthcare service delivery. For underserviced rural communities, recognising the diverse range of workers who can contribute to the provision of health, welfare and care services offers the opportunity to realise existing workforce capacity and explore how ‘total care’ may be delivered by different combinations of health, welfare and care workers.

Keywords: carers; health workforce; rural health; Tasmania; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/7014/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/7014/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:7014-:d:585754

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().