Background and objectives: General practice training in Australia is uniquely structured to allow half of all registrars to train in rural areas, in order to increase rural workforce development and access to rural primary care. There is, however, limited national-scale information about rural general practice supervisors who underpin the capacity for rural general practice training. The objective of this research was to explore the factors related to rural general practitioners (GPs) supervising general practice registrars.
Method: Results were obtained using multivariate analysis of the 2016 Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life survey data.
Results: Overall, 57.8% of rural GPs were supervising registrars. Supervising was strongly related to being Australian-trained, working in a larger practice, and supervising medical students and interns.
Discussion: Rural supervising capacity could be increased through supporting GPs in smaller practices to engage in supervision and maintaining the strong involvement of GPs in larger practices. Other important factors may include a greater number of Australian-trained graduates working in rural general practice and increased support for international medical graduates to Fellow and feel confident to supervise.