- Title
- Private practice in rural areas: an untapped opportunity for dietitians
- Creator
- Brown, Leanne J.; Mitchell, Lana J.; Williams, Lauren T.; Macdonald-Wicks, Lesley; Capra, Sandra
- Relation
- Australian Journal of Rural Health Vol. 19, Issue 4, p. 191-196
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1584.2011.01211.x
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the current demography of rural dietetic private practice and to determine the drivers and barriers for further development. Design: A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was used. Document searches and semistructured in-depth individual interviews were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Setting: Six rural case study sites of dietetic service delivery in rural northern New South Wales. Participants: Forty key informants including past and present dietitians, dietetic managers and health service managers were recruited, of these a subset of 15 interviews included discussion or comments about private practice in rural areas. Main outcomes measures: Themes identified from the interview transcripts, Medicare enhanced primary care consultation data and public/private dietetic staffing levels from document searches. Results: Private practice staffing ranged between 0% and 26% of the dietetic workforce across the six sites in 2006. Themes relating to the drivers and barriers for private practice were identified: financial factors, job satisfaction, opportunities for private practice and establishing private practice. Conclusions: There is an opportunity for growth of private practice to meet the gap in public dietetic services in rural areas.
- Subject
- dietetics; health services access; models of rural service delivery; workforce
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/936293
- Identifier
- uon:12267
- Identifier
- ISSN:1038-5282
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
- Hits: 917
- Visitors: 1243
- Downloads: 0
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format |
|---|