Sustainable rural practice for female general practitioners.

An expert panel of female rural and remote doctors have nominated updating professional skills as the most important strategy for sustainable rural general practice for women. The panel was comprised of members of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). The panel was asked to identify and prioritise strategies they had used to make rural practice work for them. They identified and ranked the following eight groups of strategies: (i) structure medical practice to work for you; (ii) implement personal strategies; (iii) obtain and update professional skills; (iv) establish professional and personal boundaries; (v) gain exposure to rural practice; (vi) engage with the community; (vii) implement professional strategies; and (viii) engage with women. Detailed strategies within these groups have been identified and will form the basis of grounded knowledge about how to structure rural and remote practice to work for women. This will complement the work of ACRRM, the Rural Doctors Association and workforce agencies in developing models of sustainable rural medical practice.