Allied Health Recruitment and Retention

Recruitment and retention of allied health professionals are significant issues in the Barwon South West region of south west Victoria. This is evidenced by a number of indicators including hard to fill long-term vacancies and high staff turnover. Factors include feelings of professional isolation and lack of career opportunities.  Allied health professionals working in sole positions and remote areas in particular are disadvantaged - for example, in accessing continuing professional development.

It is well established that there is a shortage of allied health personnel in rural and remote areas of Australia. This project looked at effective and sustainable strategies to recruit and retain allied health professionals and was part of a series of initiatives by the GGT UDRH and its partners to address allied health workforce issues in the region.

This project aimed to:

  1. Recruit and retain allied health staff
  2. Build up a locum pool of allied health staff
  3. Provide qualitative and quantitative data on recruitment and retention of allied health staff
  4. Develop a strategy for the recruitment and retention of allied health staff that could be applied to other regions of Victoria

This project was funded by the Department of Human Services – Victoria and was completed in June 2006.