Abstract

Introduction: Remote and rural populations are at higher risk of diseases and mortality compared to urban populations (Royal College of Physicians, 2019) (Department for Environment Food & Rural affairs, 2022). Evidence suggests less efficacy and confidence among health providers in remote and rural regions despite dedicated training programs. This study aimed to identify the essential components of training required to prepare healthcare professionals for confident and effective medical practice in remote and rural settings using the following objectives:

a. To understand the views of the experts across the world on the essential features required in training healthcare professionals working and about to work in remote and rural settings.
b. To arrive at the consensus position for core training components to ensure confident and effective practice.

Methodology: An email-based 3 round Delphi methodology was used.

Round 1 had open ended questions on the most frequently used knowledge, skills and resources used in a Remote and Rural Healthcare set up.

Round 2 had themes generated from round 1 and agreement rating was sought.

Round 3 summarised findings from round 2 and asked for re-rating of the themes that did not reach consensus earlier. Quantitative triangulation was employed to support the consensus process, using mean agreement scores, % agreement levels, standard deviation and Inter Quartile range to assess convergence and variability.

Results: Round 1 resulted in 65 themes under the headings knowledge topics, useful skills and useful things in a course on remote and rural health/medical practice. Through iterative refinement and expert feedback, the themes were reduced to 58 in Round 2 and finalized to 41 in Round 3, representing strong consensus.

Conclusions: This research contributes to the limited body of literature on remote health education and demonstrates the value of combining qualitative thematic analysis with quantitative validation in Delphi studies.

Recommendations include integrating the consensus themes into training curricula, conducting regional validation studies, and promoting global collaboration in remote health education.