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The Northern Territory (NT) government operates remote clinics which are primarily staffed by Aboriginal Health Practitioners and Remote Area Nurses (RANs). RAN practice has been described as particularly complex due to high health needs, workforce shortages and high levels of turnover in remote Aboriginal communities. While individual incentives are offered, there has been little examination of the role and why the work takes such a toll on RANs. This study aims to identify dominant discourses underpinning RAN practice and how these discourses reflect tensions and reinforce power relations that impact on the RAN role. Discourses were identified from a Foucauldian‐inspired discourse analysis of 29 interviews with RANs in six remote NT communities. Five dominant discourses were identified, namely, that permanent RANs are preferred to agency RANs, RANs portray themselves as experienced and certain, RANs use autonomous clinical judgement, Aboriginal staff are important and RAN's belief in making a difference. However, the experience of RANs suggested that there are many types of employment that learning from was also important, RANs often struggled to work with Aboriginal staff and they were unsure if they were making a difference. Furthermore, these discourses created tensions between RANs who were permanent–agency, older–younger, experienced–newer and certain–reflexive. Deconstructing these rigid discourses could allow the RAN role to be reconstructed in ways that lead to better retention, job satisfaction and health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Design Setting Participants Results Conclusion There is a shortage of nurses, Aboriginal Health Practitioners, GPs and other staff in remote Australian health clinics. There is also high turnover of staff, leading to questions of ‘who’ is appropriate for remote First Nations practice? The aim of this paper was to identify the characteristics of staff who are likely to work well in remote First Nations settings, from the perspectives of remote health practitioners.This is a qualitative study involving content analysis of interviews.The study is conducted in and with 11 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services across northern and central Australia.Eighty‐four staff working in these clinics who spoke about staff qualities suited to remote practice.Participants identified a range of qualities desirable in remote practitioners, which were grouped into three topics: (1) professional qualifications and experience, including cultural skills; (2) ways of working, including holisitic approach, resilience, competence, and being a team player, approachable, flexible and hard‐working; and (3) specific community needs, namely the need for local First Nations staff, male practitioners and returning short‐term staff. The combination of experiences, ways of working, and fit to both the team and community were emphasised.Identifying the characteristics of staff who are likely to work well in these settings can inform recruitment strategies. This study found that a combination of professional qualifications, skills and experience as well as ways of working, individual characteristics and needs of communities are desirable for working in remote, First Nations settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]