Loca­tion

Gen­er­al­ly, you have to trav­el to a remote set­ting, some­times hours by road. Some remote places require a plane to get to, espe­cial­ly after a wet sea­son as dirt roads can get cut off with water. A ben­e­fit of remote loca­tions is that there’s no traf­fic or traf­fic lights! The Mod­i­fied Monash Mod­el can be a help­ful guide to remoteness. 

Staffing

There are less staff based in a remote clin­i­cal facil­i­ty (hos­pi­tal or clin­ic) as there are less ser­vices avail­able. In some set­tings there are no doc­tors on site per­ma­nent­ly; instead, they’re on call via phone or teleconference. 

In oth­ers, they vis­it reg­u­lar­ly, such as once a week. In urban set­tings, you may have dozens of nurs­es in each depart­ment, along with clin­i­cal edu­ca­tors, man­agers, ancil­lary staff, admin staff and even emer­gency ser­vices with a sim­ple 000 call. In a remote set­ting, the emer­gency ser­vices often con­sist of nurs­es or Abo­rig­i­nal health prac­ti­tion­ers. Spe­cial­ists may vis­it remote regions less fre­quent­ly, and refer­rals are required for some pro­ce­dures such as surgery, scans, and X‑rays, which are often done in urban facilities. 

Skill set

Although there are many skills required to work in a met­ro­pol­i­tan hos­pi­tal, espe­cial­ly in spe­cial­ist con­texts such as Emer­gency and Inten­sive Care, work­ing in a remote set­ting requires nurs­es to be ​‘gen­er­al spe­cial­ists’ which means hav­ing var­ied expe­ri­ence, knowl­edge and skill across mul­ti­ple areas. This may range from emer­gency skills, pri­ma­ry health care, health pro­mo­tion, chron­ic dis­eases, pal­lia­tive care, men­tal health, women’s health, and child’s health.

Resources

In many cas­es in remote set­tings, there may only be one or two shops avail­able, a school and lim­it­ed sports or com­mu­ni­ty groups.

Lifestyle

Major dif­fer­ences with lifestyles will depend on the loca­tion. Most remote places won’t have a cof­fee shop down the road but will have beau­ti­ful land­scapes for walk­ing, fish­ing, and camping.