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Introduction: Dementias a prevalent chronic healthcare condition affecting 46 million people worldwide and projected to grow in the coming years. Australians living in rural and regional areas often lack access to specialist dementia care, despite greater prevalence relative to metropolitan areas., Objective: This study aimed to explore general practitioners (GP) understanding, confidence and attitudes towards dementia management in the rural context, and design and pilot a dementia-specific training program., Design: A two-stage, mixed methods design, using qualitative and quantitative methods. Sixteen regional GPs from across Victoria participated in scoping semi-structured interviews. Fourteen separate GPs in the St Anthony Family Medical Practice group in the regional Loddon-Mallee area of Victoria completed the pilot training intervention. Pre- and post-training surveys (n = 10), as well as post-training interviews (n = 10), assessed attitude and knowledge changes., Findings: Analysis of semi-structured scoping interviews indicated three themes regarding experience of dementia management, including: (1) attitudes to and experiences of dementia; (2) supporting people living with dementia; and (3) knowledge, education and training of dementia. The pilot dementia-specific training was found to improve attitudes (agreement across 24 best-practice indicators improved from 30% to 79%), knowledge (median increase of 2.5/10) and confidence in managing dementia and disclosing dementia diagnoses (median increase 3/10 and 2.75/10, respectively)., Discussion: General practitioners in this study lacked initial confidence in detecting and managing dementia in a rural primary care setting. A targeted training program showed improvements in these areas., Conclusion: Accessible, locally delivered, dementia education has the potential to improve confidence in early detection and management of people with dementia and thereby may address gaps in access to care for people living with dementia in rural settings., (© 2024 The Authors. Australian Journal of Rural Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.)

ABSTRACTThe West Vic Division of General Practice, working with the Department of General Practice, The University of Queensland conducted a qualitative study of GPs who had left western Victoria over the previous 10 years to examine issues relating to the decision to leave rural practice. This study was conducted as part of a project to explore the role of rural Divisions in assisting with general practitioner recruitment and retention. The study supported the conclusions of a similar study in North Queensland and proposed a model that regards rural retention as an interplay of influences both positive and negative with acute trigger factors that can precipitate the decision to leave. Conflict and dissatisfaction with aspects of rural GP hospital work appeared to be a relatively frequent trigger factor that is immediately amenable to intervention from Divisions of general practice and through improvement in negotiation and conflict resolution skills for rural general practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]