Why you work in remote health

You told us that mak­ing a dif­fer­ence to com­mu­ni­ties (73%), pro­fes­sion­al exten­sion and sat­is­fac­tion (65%), and per­son­al or lifestyle ben­e­fits (54%) remain the main moti­va­tions for work­ing in a rur­al and remote set­ting. Finan­cial ben­e­fits as a moti­va­tion has fall­en sig­nif­i­cant­ly com­pared to pre­vi­ous years.

Work­force experience 

The sur­vey results show that the num­ber of ear­ly career remote area nurs­es is sta­ble; how­ev­er, the num­ber of those with between 5 and 10 years of expe­ri­ence has fall­en. Over­all, the rur­al and remote pro­fes­sion­al exper­tise of the work­force has increased, with Mem­bers with more than 10 years of expe­ri­ence work­ing in remote areas increasing.

Work­place conditions

When con­sid­er­ing the work con­di­tions most impor­tant to Mem­bers, this year, the results show a strong focus on rela­tion­ship-based fac­tors over phys­i­cal con­di­tions and ser­vices avail­able. Aside from safe­ty and secu­ri­ty, Mem­bers nom­i­nat­ed effec­tive pro­fes­sion­al and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tion­ships and effec­tive staffing (num­ber and skill mix) as increas­ing­ly impor­tant. Up to five con­di­tions were iden­ti­fied by each respon­dent, the top most impor­tant includ­ed safe­ty and secu­ri­ty (72%); sup­port­ive man­age­ment (65%); pos­i­tive work­place rela­tion­ships (62%); pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships between the work­place and com­mu­ni­ty (58%); and appro­pri­ate staffing and skill mix (56%).

Advo­ca­cy and sup­port pri­or­i­ties

You told us that of the issues CRANAplus advo­cates for, the fol­low­ing are most impor­tant: safe­ty and secu­ri­ty (69%); resourc­ing to meet PHC needs (68%); work­force well­be­ing (67%); work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty (66%); and rur­al and remote career path­ways (64%). We’re active­ly respond­ing to these pri­or­i­ties. CRANAplus con­tin­ues to sup­port career path­ways, offers men­tal health and well­be­ing sup­port, includ­ing a 24/7 tele­phone sup­port line and a range­of men­tal health and well­be­ing work­shops, resources and edu­ca­tion, and advo­cates for safe­ty and secu­ri­ty. We also meet reg­u­lar­ly with key stake­hold­ers at the nation­al and state/​territory lev­el. Your feed­back via the sur­vey, com­bined with the input of the Mem­ber Round­table, informs which issues we seek to address in our advo­ca­cy on your behalf.

Work­force trends

16% of respon­dents report­ed being inter­est­ed in, or plan­ning to tran­si­tion into, rur­al or remote prac­tice. 25% are con­sid­er­ing leav­ing with­in the next two years, with 41% of these cit­ing retire­ment as the pri­ma­ry rea­son. 55% of sur­vey respon­dents are 55 years of age or old­er. This data rein­forces the impor­tance of the Gov­ern­ment invest­ing in work­force pipelines that sup­port our incred­i­ble, long-term, expe­ri­enced nurs­es to have the resources to sup­port those want­i­ng to tran­si­tion into remote prac­tice. CRANAplus has recent­ly sub­mit­ted a com­pre­hen­sive pre-bud­get sub­mis­sion to the Gov­ern­ment advo­cat­ing for fund­ing a nation­al Post­grad­u­ate Rur­al and Remote Gen­er­al­ist Path­way for Reg­is­tered Nurs­es and Reg­is­tered Nurse Mid­wives and a Clin­i­cal Reflec­tive Super­vi­sion Program.

Safe­ty and secu­ri­ty

Safe­ty con­cerns remain a con­cern­ing trend. With­in the last 12 months, 8% of respon­dents have been expect­ed to attend call-outs on their own. 31% have expe­ri­enced a safe­ty and secu­ri­ty inci­dent while car­ry­ing out their role (increased by 4%), while 16% have at times been con­cerned for their safe­ty and did not feel able to voice their con­cerns. Only 10% of new employ­ees received a com­pre­hen­sive ori­en­ta­tion to their work­place, which includ­ed com­mu­ni­ty intro­duc­tions and safe­ty and secu­ri­ty poli­cies and pro­ce­dures (decreased by 6%). More work­places have safe­ty and secu­ri­ty poli­cies and pro­ce­dures that are fol­lowed (increased by 5%). In response, CRANAplus will con­tin­ue our advo­ca­cy for sys­tem­at­ic changes to improve safe­ty mea­sures and sup­port for remote health workers.

Thank you to the Mem­bers who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 2024 Annu­al Mem­ber Sur­vey. Con­grat­u­la­tions to CRANAplus Mem­ber Bron­wyn, who has won the draw for the $200 gift vouch­er for her participation.

As we move through 2025, we remain deeply com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing our Mem­bers and advo­cat­ing for pos­i­tive change in remote health­care delivery.

We’re grate­ful for your con­tin­ued trust in CRANAplus and your ded­i­ca­tion to remote health. Togeth­er, we are work­ing to build a stronger, safer, and more sus­tain­able remote health­care workforce.