The longer term impact of a novel rural mental health recruitment strategy: A quasi-experimental study.
INTRODUCTION
This study examines the longer term impact of the Gippsland Mental Health Vacation School program, an initiative designed to orientate preregistration allied health and nursing students to rural mental health employment and career opportunities.


METHODS
Student participants from vacation schools held from July 2010 to August 2013 were invited to complete on-line surveys prior to, immediately following and 6 months after the event. Participant rating of Interest in rural work, mental health work and rural mental health work and responses to the student attitudes to rural practice and life questionnaire were analyzed using repeated measure analyses of variance.


RESULTS
There was a large and significant positive increase in pre to post scores for student interest and attitudes to working in and career in the rural mental health sector. These gains in interest and attitudes fell away by approximately 50% in the six months following the program. The changes in attitudes toward rural work remained significant six months after the program, while attitudes to rural life at six months following the program were not-significantly different to the preprogram scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings highlight that although a short term program designed to attract students to rural mental health work can positively change participants' interest in and attitudes toward rural work and life, the change diminishes over time. However, interest in rural work and career and rural work attitudes generally maintain significant improvement in the longer term. These differential findings have important implications for developing strategies to overcome rural mental health workforce shortages.
['Sutton|Keith P|KP|', 'Maybery|Darryl|D|', 'Patrick|Kent J|KJ|']
D000328:Adult D002321:Career Choice D003156:Community Mental Health Services D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010560:Personnel Selection D019035:Rural Health Services D013336:Students, Health Occupations D000078329:Workforce D055815:Young Adult
rural recruitment student career choice mental health profession