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Catherine A Hays,1 Selina M Taylor,1 Beverley D Glass2 1Centre for Rural and Remote Health, James Cook University, Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia; 2Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, AustraliaCorrespondence: Catherine A HaysCentre for Rural and Remote Health, James Cook University, PO Box 2572, Mount Isa, Queensland 4825 AustraliaTel +61 7 4745 4500Fax +61 7 4749 5130Email catherine.hays@jcu.edu.auBackground: Health outcome delivery for rural and remote Australian communities is challenged by the maldistribution of the pharmacy workforce. High staff turnover rates, reduced pharmacist numbers, and reliance on temporary staff have placed great strain on both state health services and rural community pharmacies. However, recent changes to the demographic profile of the rural pharmacist including a lower average age and increased time spent in rural practice highlights a more positive future for the delivery of better health outcomes for rural communities. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that motivate and challenge pharmacists’ choice to practice rurally.Methods: Rural pharmacists were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews using purposive non-probability sampling. Twelve pharmacists were interviewed with early-, middle- and late-career pharmacists represented. Participants described their experiences of working and living in rural and remote locations. Three themes emerged: workforce, practice environment and social factors, which were examined to determine the underlying challenges and motivators impacting rural and remote pharmacy practice.Results: Lack of staff presented a workforce challenge, while motivators included potential for expanded scope of practice and working as part of a multidisciplinary team. While social isolation has often been presented as a challenge, an emerging theme highlighted that this may no longer be true, and that notions of “rural and remote communities as socially isolated was a stigma that needed to be stopped”.Conclusion: This study highlights that despite the challenges rural pharmacists face, there is a shift happening that could deliver better health outcomes for isolated communities. However, for this to gain momentum, it is important to examine both the challenges and motivators of rural pharmacy practice to provide a platform for the development and implementation of appropriate frameworks and programs to better support the rural pharmacy workforce.Keywords: pharmacy, workforce, rural and remote, health outcomes

Objectives: To explore and synthesise the evidence relating to features of quality in rural health student placements., Design: Scoping review., Data Sources: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, ProQuest, Informit, Scopus, ERIC and several grey literature data sources (1 January 2005 to 13 October 2020)., Study Selection: The review included peer-reviewed and grey literature from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development listed countries that focused on quality of health student placements in regional, rural and remote areas., Data Extraction: Data were extracted regarding the methodological and design characteristics of each data source, and the features suggested to contribute to student placement quality under five categories based on a work-integrated learning framework., Results: Of 2866 resulting papers, 101 were included for data charting and content analysis. The literature was dominated by medicine and nursing student placement research. No literature explicitly defined quality in rural health student placements, although proxy indicators for quality such as satisfaction, positive experiences, overall effectiveness and perceived value were identified. Content analysis resulted in four overarching domains pertaining to features of rural health student placement quality: (1) learning and teaching in a rural context, (2) rural student placement characteristics, (3) key relationships and (4) required infrastructure., Conclusion: The findings suggest that quality in rural health student placements hinges on contextually specific features. Further research is required to explore these findings and ways in which these features can be measured during rural health student placements., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

The Web 2.0 digital environment is revolutionizing how users communicate and relate to each other, and how information is shared, created, and recreated within user communities. The social media technologies in the Web 2.0 digital ecosystem are fundamentally changing the opportunities and dangers in disseminating qualitative health research. The social changes influenced by digital innovations shift dissemination from passive consumption to user-centered, apomediated cooperative approaches, the features of which are underutilized by many qualitative researchers. We identify opportunities new digital media presents for knowledge dissemination activities including access to wider audiences with few gatekeeper constraints, new perspectives, and symbiotic relationships between researchers and users. We also address some of the challenges in embracing these technologies including lack of control, potential for unethical co-optation of work, and cyberbullying. Finally, we offer solutions to enhance research dissemination in sustainable, ethical, and effective strategies., (© The Author(s) 2015.)