Towards a home‐grown rural health workforce: Evidence from Tasmania, Australia

Objective To examine the association between place of origin and principal place of practice (PPP) of domestic Tasmanian health graduates who received end‐to‐end training with the University of Tasmania (UTAS). Methods The 2022 PPP for all UTAS domestic Tasmanian graduates from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, medical radiation science and paramedicine between 2011 and 2020 was identified using the online Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) registration database. The graduate's place of origin (home address at the time of course application), together with their 2022 PPP, was described using the Modified Monash Model (MM) classification system of remoteness. Data were analysed using STATA. Results Over the 10‐year period, 4079 domestic Tasmanians graduated from health courses at UTAS, of which 3850 (94.4%) were matched to an Australian PPP. In all, 78.3% of graduates were working in Tasmania, while the remainder (21.7%) were employed interstate. Of those with a Tasmanian PPP, 81.4% were working in a regional setting (MM2), while 77.6% of interstate employed graduates recorded a metropolitan (MM1) PPP. Rural place of origin (MM3‐7) was associated with rural employment (MM3‐7) in both Tasmania (OR, 37.08; 95% CI 29.01–47.39, p