Centre for Rural Health, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.
Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2024 May 21;24(1):652. doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11087-9.
Strong growth in graduate supply from health, welfare and care courses across Australia may bode well for easing rural workforce shortages. However, little is known about the employment opportunities available for recent graduates in non-metropolitan areas. This study aimed to quantify and describe advertised job vacancies for health, welfare and care professions in Tasmania, a largely rural and geographically isolated island state of Australia. Further, it aimed to examine those job vacancies specifying that recent graduates were suitable to apply.
Job advertisements for health, welfare and care professionals were collected weekly throughout 2018 from six online job vacancy websites. Data were extracted on 25 variables pertaining to type of profession, number of positions, location, and graduate suitability. Location of positions were recoded into a Modified Monash Model (MM) category, the Australian geographic standard used to classify rurality. Positions advertised in MM2 areas were considered regional and MM3-7 areas rural to very remote. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Over the twelve-month period, 3967 advertisements were identified, recruiting for more than 4700 positions across 49 different health, welfare and care professions in Tasmania. Most vacancies were in the non-government sector (58.5%) and located in regional areas (71.7%) of the state. Professions most frequently advertised were registered nurse (24.4%) and welfare worker (11.4%). Eleven professions, including physiotherapist and occupational therapist, recorded a disproportionate number of advertisements relative to workforce size, suggesting discipline specific workforce shortages. Only 4.6% of collected advertisements specified that a recent graduate would be suitable to apply. Of these, most were for the non-government sector (70.1%) and located in regional areas (73.4%). The professions of physiotherapist (26.6%) and occupational therapist (11.4%) were most frequently represented in advertised graduate suitable positions.
Despite a range of advertised employment opportunities for health, welfare and care professionals across Tasmania, few specified vacancies as suitable for recent graduates and most were located in regional areas of the state. Health, welfare and care services in non-metropolitan locations may need to develop more employment opportunities for recent graduates and explicitly advertise these to job-seeking graduates to help grow and sustain the rural and remote health workforce into the future.
澳大利亚健康、福利和护理课程的研究生供应量强劲增长，这可能有助于缓解农村劳动力短缺问题。然而，对于非大都市地区最近的毕业生的就业机会知之甚少。本研究旨在量化和描述澳大利亚塔斯马尼亚州健康、福利和护理专业的广告职位空缺情况，并进一步研究那些适合应届毕业生申请的职位空缺。
从六个在线职位空缺网站上每周收集 2018 年的卫生、福利和护理专业人员的广告。提取与专业类型、职位数量、地点和毕业生适用性相关的 25 个变量的数据。职位地点被重新编码为修正的 Monash 模型（MM）类别，这是澳大利亚用于分类农村地区的地理标准。在 MM2 地区广告的职位被认为是区域职位，而 MM3-7 地区则是农村到非常偏远的地区。使用描述性和推断性统计数据进行分析。
在 12 个月期间，共确定了 3967 个广告，为塔斯马尼亚州 49 个不同的健康、福利和护理专业招聘了超过 4700 个职位。大多数职位空缺都在非政府部门（58.5%）和该州的地区（71.7%）。广告最多的专业是注册护士（24.4%）和福利工作者（11.4%）。包括物理治疗师和职业治疗师在内的 11 个专业，其广告数量相对于劳动力规模不成比例，表明存在特定领域的劳动力短缺。在收集到的广告中，只有 4.6%指定应届毕业生适合申请。其中，大多数是在非政府部门（70.1%）和地区（73.4%）。广告中适合应届毕业生的职位最常出现的专业是物理治疗师（26.6%）和职业治疗师（11.4%）。
尽管塔斯马尼亚州有各种针对卫生、福利和护理专业人员的广告职位空缺，但很少有指定适合应届毕业生的职位空缺，而且大多数都位于该州的地区。非大都市地区的卫生、福利和护理服务可能需要为应届毕业生创造更多的就业机会，并明确向求职毕业生宣传这些机会，以帮助未来发展和维持农村和偏远地区的劳动力。
