Topics: Community health workers, Employee Engagement, Motivation/incentives, Retention of health workers/reducing attrition, Supervision

Region and Country: Oceania, Australia

This study assesses the career goals of local Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) and community stakeholders to identify barriers to undertaking advanced health education. It uses open-ended interviews with nine participants in two communities in Northwest Queensland, Australia and found that, although interest in careers like medicine and nursing were expressed, the majority of participants indicated a preference for advancement to management or specialist areas as AHWs. Three main themes emerged in relation to barriers faced by AHWs and students in continuing study: support, infrastructure and promotion.