Our role
Through our rural workforce agency, we address health workforce shortages in regional, rural and remote Australia by:
- improving access and continuity of access to essential primary health care
- building local health workforce capability to ensure communities can access the right health professional at the right time, and ensuring health practitioners have the right skills and qualifications for their positions
- growing the sustainability and supply of the health workforce to strengthen long‐term access to appropriately qualified health professionals.
Identifying workforce needs and solutions
We assess health workforce needs and respond to those needs with informed and evidence-based responses. We do this by:
- reviewing available literature and collation of existing data
- consulting with key stakeholders including industry groups and peak bodies
- conducting surveys, interviews, and other activities to consult and fill information gaps
- liaising with subject matter experts
- consulting with the broad community
- working with the Health Workforce Stakeholder Group.
Read our health workforce needs assessment for general practitioners and the remote primary health care workforce including remote area nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners.
Read more about our health workforce needs assessment for allied health professionals.
Our publications
2023 RWA Needs Assessment
The 2023 report provides an update on the current and emerging needs of the workforce, with a specific focus on the Barkly region. The assessment identifies gaps in the primary care workforce and services and aims to highlight a region with high needs.
2019 RWA Needs Assessment
The 2019 report contributes to the ongoing development and implementation of evidence based activities to address national and specific priorities, relating to workforce needs and gaps in jurisdictions.
Geographic priorities
- Remote Aboriginal community-controlled health care services
- Aboriginal community-controlled health services serving the Aboriginal populations in Darwin and Alice Springs
- General practices in remote locations MMM6 and 7, and Darwin urban fringe communities – Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Weddell, Alligator
Discipline priorities
- Remote area nurses
- Mental health nurses
- Psychologists
- Mental health occupational therapists
- Social workers
- Audiologists
Priority areas
- Develop the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce – clinical and non-clinical
- Develop pathways into and through health careers
- Attract, maintain and retain existing workforce within the Northern Territory
- Develop locally responsive, sustainable models of care
Download the Workforce Needs Analysis: Priority Areas for more information.
