Mapping rural health research and educational activities in Europe: A scoping exercise

Viet-Hai Phung, Ferdinando Petrazzuoli, Kateřina Javorská, Josep Vidal-Alaball, Anette Fosse, John Wynn-Jones, Anette Liljegren, Rebecca Payne, Ioanna Tsiligianni, Rosario Falanga, Christos Lionis, Chris Clark, Jean-Pierre Jacquet, Donata Kurpas, Nataša Mrduljaš-Đujić, Liam Glynn, Peter Hayes, Joyce Kenkre, Sarah-Anne Muñoz, Pam Nicoll, Roxana Surugiu, Tim Sanders, David Halata, Mark Gussy

Keywords: Scoping exercise; rural health; research; Europe

Justification:

In 2022, the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association (EURIPA) published its Blueprint for Rural Practice in Europe. This followed the earlier Charter for Rural Practice (1997) and aims to set the vision and benchmark for European rural health care over the next 25 years.

Rural practice is becoming increasingly important in Europe. The Blueprint identified the need to expand rural academic practice as essential to develop an evidence base for present and future rural health care. At the 13th EURIPA Rural Health Forum in 2024, a workshop was held which led to the establishment of the Rural Health European Academic Network (RHEAN). The RHEAN is a working group within EURIPA, which includes clinicians and academics working in rural health research, as well as in multidisciplinary education and training for rural health practice.

Objective:

A scoping exercise is currently underway, which builds on the work of this workshop to develop collaboration between European rural health researchers and teachers. The scoping exercise aims to understand current rural health-related networking, research and educational activities across 32 countries (European single market countries and the UK). The workshop aims to validate the initial findings of the scoping exercise and to identify commonalities and differences between countries, as well as to share good practice.

Organisation:

The workshop will present the findings of the initial scoping exercise.

Participation:

Rural clinicians in Europe, including Eastern Europe, are the target audience, who will sense check the findings in small group discussions.

Expected outcomes:

The workshop will inform future collaborations in rural health research and education. The outcomes of the workshop will inform the future work programme of the RHEAN and stimulate further rural health research and educational activities. These findings will also provide the baseline for involving other European countries in the RHEAN.

#41