Keywords: Workforce, recruitment, retention, rural

Background:

Recruiting and retaining a skilled health workforce is a common challenge for remote rural communities, negatively affecting access to services, and in turn peoples’ health.
Vesterålen is a region in Northern Norway with five municipalities and a rural hospital. The municipalities and the hospital recruit from the same cohort of doctors. As previous attempts in recruiting health care personnel have failed, this project has used a joint municipal-hospital strategy based on The Making it Work: Framework for Rural Remote Workforce Stability to meet the challenges. Developed over seven years by an international collaboration, the Framework describes a spectrum of nine key strategic elements, grouped into three main tasks (plan, recruit, retain) with five conditions for success.

Aim of the case report:

Improving recruitment and retention of doctors in a rural region in Northern Norway

Case report:

Based on information from local survey mapping of doctors in the region the project implemented nine measures to achieve the aim of the project, focusing mainly on retention, during the project period 2022-2024. Continuous mapping of the situation was important for regular evaluations, but it also gave legitimacy to the project at all levels in the involved organizations. The project had to adapt to the complex environments in municipalities and the hospital, and a flexible and dynamic approach was necessary.
The results for the GP services are encouraging: the fraction of specialists in family medicine has increased from 30% to 70% in the region and the mobility in family medicine positions in the municipalities has decreased. The number of vacant positions in the local hospital, and the use of employment agencies have decreased.

Conclusions:

Recruitment and retention are closely linked and interconnected. The Framework secured a comprehensive, flexible, adaptable and systematic approach to a complex challenge.