Retention of allied health professionals in Tasmania

Allied health professionals (AHPs) are important to the rural health workforce, although shortages exist in many rural areas. Studies that address recruitment and retention of AHPs have acknowledged the complex and multifactorial nature of the issue. We report findings from a Tasmanian Allied and Oral Health Workforce survey on factors that contribute to retention (intention to stay) of AHPs in rural areas.

Tasmania has one University that serves a state population of approximately 500 000 people. Only a limited number of allied health professional courses are offered by the University. This impacts on the ability of Tasmanians to undertake training across the full range of AHPs as well as the ability of practicing AHPs to access local university-based continuing professional development. Recruiting and retaining an AHP workforce can therefore be particularly challenging.