Region of Choice: Barwon South West

Attracting and retaining allied health professionals in rural areas is a recognised problem in both Australia and overseas. A range of factors in different domains has been associated with recruitment and retention in the allied health workforce.  Health workforce recruitment and retention is a challenging problem particularly in the context of predicted increases in health service demand and declines in the relative numbers of professionals that are available.

Factors that impact on recruitment and retention are of significant concern in the Barwon South West region of south west Victoria. In many instances where there are allied health vacancies, other allied health areas subsequently experience extra workload due to requests to assist with patient management elsewhere. The DHS Victoria-funded Allied Health Survey found that within the Barwon South West region there were more than 70 positions vacant across the region.

This project seeks to build on and continue the momentum from the work undertaken in the Allied Health Recruitment and Retention project. It aims to:

  1. Pro-actively collaborate with key stakeholders to develop and implement allied health recruitment and retention strategies and services in the Barwon South West region including development of a regional allied health workforce strategic plan and a marketing strategy to assist with recruitment to the region and development of an orientation program for recently recruited allied health workers
  2. Participate with Department of Human Services - Victoria representatives from other regions in the development of a centralised allied health vacancy register for Victoria
  3. Monitor and analyse the effectiveness of allied health recruitment and retention initiatives implemented within the region

This project is funded by the Department of Human Services – Victoria. It commenced in April 2006 and is due for completion in 2008.