Health workforce planning methods in rural and remote primary care: a scoping review

Findings highlight a lack of clear guidance for policymakers in how to choose planning methods aligned to the models of care used (or visioned) in rural and remote areas. Whilst a "whole of system" approach at a local level shows promise, there is a lack of clearly accepted methods and empirical evidence evaluating the effectiveness of such approaches. Additionally, the limited integration of workforce competency metrics alongside traditional headcount represents a notable gap, constraining opportunities for competency and skills-based planning at scale. Planning undertaken in isolation from the different models of care employed in rural and remote areas is likely to exacerbate workforce maldistribution. Progress requires the creation of integrated, longitudinal, competency-linked workforce datasets that link administrative, clinical and population domains to capture the dynamic realities of practice, including geography, mobility, workload intensity, models of care, scopes of practice and role flexibility to inform responsive rural and remote primary care workforce planning and resource allocation.