‘Moving to the countryside and staying’?: Exploring doctors migration choices to remote and rural areas

Andrew Maclaren; Louise Locock; Zoe Skea; Jennifer Cleland; Alan Denison; Rosemary Hollick; Peter Murchie; Diane Skatun; Verity Watson; Philip Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103210

‘Moving to the countryside and staying’? Exploring doctors migration choices to remote and rural areas

Andrew Maclaren, Louise Locock, Zoe Skea^* (Corresponding Author), Jennifer Cleland, Alan Denison, Rosemary Hollick, Peter Murchie, Diane Skatun, Verity Watson, Philip Wilson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

6 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this paper we bring together health services research, rural studies and migration research to explore the recruitment and retention of doctors to rural areas. We argue that to understand doctors’ job choices we need to understand their lives holistically - beyond solely their job. In doing this we consider why doctors move, but also why they stay in rural areas. To do this we draw on qualitative research with 56 doctors from primary and secondary care. We highlight how place-based factors are important to consider in moving beyond the language of ‘recruitment and retention’, as many of the issues facing doctors moving to or staying in rural areas are beyond the scope and influence of their jobs and the health service. With a demographic shift in general practice particularly, where many GPs are over the age of 50, specific pre-retirement
migration habits are important to consider within wider research on demographic ageing in rural communities. Further, stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacts on migration decisions of future doctors training or career choices forward. This work contribution, thus, brings holistic place-based and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on work otherwise influenced heavily by health and medical research and we argue that such dialogue with other interdisciplinary perspectives within rural studies are important in understanding professional migratory, particularly of doctors, choices to rural places.

Original language	English
Article number	103210
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of Rural Studies
Volume	108
Early online date	20 May 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103210
Publication status	Published - May 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
This research was funded through grant HIPS/19/37 from The Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office. This research would not have been possible without the time given by Doctors across Scotland to talk about recruitment and retention themselves as well as share their own stories. The authors would like to thank their advisory panel and PPI partners for their help and input throughout the research to date, as well as Dr Mesfin Genie and Jillian Evans in the wider research team. The authors would like to acknowledge the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewer that helped develop this paper prior to publication. This paper benefitted from having parts presented or discussed at various invited presentations, seminars, workshops and conferences, Maclaren would particularly like to thank the organisers of the NHS Highland R&D conference, Health Education England – Remote, Rural, Coastal and Small Training Locations group, Rethinking Remote Conference, Health Services Research UK Conference, RGS-IBG ‘People moving to the countryside: resurgent again in COVID-19 times … but are they staying?’ session contributors, The North Strategic Planning Group, North of Scotland Workforce Learning Network, Royal College of General Practitioners Rural Forum. Andrew Maclaren would like to thank Lily Maclaren for her support and keen eye in proof reading various versions of this work before submission.

Data Availability Statement

Authors elect to not share data owing to sharing data potentially compromising privacy of human data, ethical standards or legal requirements. We have committed ethically to maintaining interviewee confidentiality.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

@article{1c7b8a430c754a3ebdf66bc664b4db12,

title = "{\textquoteleft}Moving to the countryside and staying{\textquoteright}?: Exploring doctors migration choices to remote and rural areas",

abstract = "In this paper we bring together health services research, rural studies and migration research to explore the recruitment and retention of doctors to rural areas. We argue that to understand doctors{\textquoteright} job choices we need to understand their lives holistically - beyond solely their job. In doing this we consider why doctors move, but also why they stay in rural areas. To do this we draw on qualitative research with 56 doctors from primary and secondary care. We highlight how place-based factors are important to consider in moving beyond the language of {\textquoteleft}recruitment and retention{\textquoteright}, as many of the issues facing doctors moving to or staying in rural areas are beyond the scope and influence of their jobs and the health service. With a demographic shift in general practice particularly, where many GPs are over the age of 50, specific pre-retirementmigration habits are important to consider within wider research on demographic ageing in rural communities. Further, stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacts on migration decisions of future doctors training or career choices forward. This work contribution, thus, brings holistic place-based and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on work otherwise influenced heavily by health and medical research and we argue that such dialogue with other interdisciplinary perspectives within rural studies are important in understanding professional migratory, particularly of doctors, choices to rural places.",

author = "Andrew Maclaren and Louise Locock and Zoe Skea and Jennifer Cleland and Alan Denison and Rosemary Hollick and Peter Murchie and Diane Skatun and Verity Watson and Philip Wilson",

note = "Acknowledgements This research was funded through grant HIPS/19/37 from The Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office. This research would not have been possible without the time given by Doctors across Scotland to talk about recruitment and retention themselves as well as share their own stories. The authors would like to thank their advisory panel and PPI partners for their help and input throughout the research to date, as well as Dr Mesfin Genie and Jillian Evans in the wider research team. The authors would like to acknowledge the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewer that helped develop this paper prior to publication. This paper benefitted from having parts presented or discussed at various invited presentations, seminars, workshops and conferences, Maclaren would particularly like to thank the organisers of the NHS Highland R&D conference, Health Education England – Remote, Rural, Coastal and Small Training Locations group, Rethinking Remote Conference, Health Services Research UK Conference, RGS-IBG {\textquoteleft}People moving to the countryside: resurgent again in COVID-19 times … but are they staying?{\textquoteright} session contributors, The North Strategic Planning Group, North of Scotland Workforce Learning Network, Royal College of General Practitioners Rural Forum. Andrew Maclaren would like to thank Lily Maclaren for her support and keen eye in proof reading various versions of this work before submission.",

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T2 - Exploring doctors migration choices to remote and rural areas

AU - Maclaren, Andrew

AU - Locock, Louise

AU - Skea, Zoe

AU - Cleland, Jennifer

AU - Denison, Alan

AU - Hollick, Rosemary

AU - Murchie, Peter

AU - Skatun, Diane

AU - Watson, Verity

AU - Wilson, Philip

N1 - Acknowledgements This research was funded through grant HIPS/19/37 from The Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office. This research would not have been possible without the time given by Doctors across Scotland to talk about recruitment and retention themselves as well as share their own stories. The authors would like to thank their advisory panel and PPI partners for their help and input throughout the research to date, as well as Dr Mesfin Genie and Jillian Evans in the wider research team. The authors would like to acknowledge the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewer that helped develop this paper prior to publication. This paper benefitted from having parts presented or discussed at various invited presentations, seminars, workshops and conferences, Maclaren would particularly like to thank the organisers of the NHS Highland R&D conference, Health Education England – Remote, Rural, Coastal and Small Training Locations group, Rethinking Remote Conference, Health Services Research UK Conference, RGS-IBG ‘People moving to the countryside: resurgent again in COVID-19 times … but are they staying?’ session contributors, The North Strategic Planning Group, North of Scotland Workforce Learning Network, Royal College of General Practitioners Rural Forum. Andrew Maclaren would like to thank Lily Maclaren for her support and keen eye in proof reading various versions of this work before submission.

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N2 - In this paper we bring together health services research, rural studies and migration research to explore the recruitment and retention of doctors to rural areas. We argue that to understand doctors’ job choices we need to understand their lives holistically - beyond solely their job. In doing this we consider why doctors move, but also why they stay in rural areas. To do this we draw on qualitative research with 56 doctors from primary and secondary care. We highlight how place-based factors are important to consider in moving beyond the language of ‘recruitment and retention’, as many of the issues facing doctors moving to or staying in rural areas are beyond the scope and influence of their jobs and the health service. With a demographic shift in general practice particularly, where many GPs are over the age of 50, specific pre-retirementmigration habits are important to consider within wider research on demographic ageing in rural communities. Further, stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacts on migration decisions of future doctors training or career choices forward. This work contribution, thus, brings holistic place-based and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on work otherwise influenced heavily by health and medical research and we argue that such dialogue with other interdisciplinary perspectives within rural studies are important in understanding professional migratory, particularly of doctors, choices to rural places.

AB - In this paper we bring together health services research, rural studies and migration research to explore the recruitment and retention of doctors to rural areas. We argue that to understand doctors’ job choices we need to understand their lives holistically - beyond solely their job. In doing this we consider why doctors move, but also why they stay in rural areas. To do this we draw on qualitative research with 56 doctors from primary and secondary care. We highlight how place-based factors are important to consider in moving beyond the language of ‘recruitment and retention’, as many of the issues facing doctors moving to or staying in rural areas are beyond the scope and influence of their jobs and the health service. With a demographic shift in general practice particularly, where many GPs are over the age of 50, specific pre-retirementmigration habits are important to consider within wider research on demographic ageing in rural communities. Further, stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacts on migration decisions of future doctors training or career choices forward. This work contribution, thus, brings holistic place-based and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on work otherwise influenced heavily by health and medical research and we argue that such dialogue with other interdisciplinary perspectives within rural studies are important in understanding professional migratory, particularly of doctors, choices to rural places.

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DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103210

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JF - Journal of Rural Studies

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