Patterns of resident health workforce turnover and retention in remote communities of the Northern Territory of Australia, 2013–2015

Table 2 Summary of nurse workforce metrics, by community population size and type

Population size category of remote community	Number of clinics	Mean annual nurse turnover (%) (95% CI)	Mean nurse annual stability^a (%) (95% CI)	Mean number of pay periods per year with a nurse who has remained for 2 or more years (95% CI)^c	Mean survival probability^b for nurses after 12 months (95%CI)	Average survival time for nurses in years (95% CI)	Mean agency-employed nurse FTE ratio
<200 predominantly Aboriginal	5	156 (76, 318)	57.9 (27.1, 100.0)	2.4 (1.8, 3.2)	0.14 (0.02, 0.36)	0.69 (0.04, 0.92)	0.04 (0.00, 1.68)
200–349 predominantly Aboriginal	12	202 (145, 281)	45.1 (30.9, 65.6)	8.3 (7.4, 9.3)	0.11 (0.05, 0.19)	0.19 (0.08, 0.31)	0.14 (0.04, 0.43)
350–799 predominantly Aboriginal	16	175 (136, 224)	47.2 (36.2, 61.5)	14.6 (13.5, 15.7)	0.13 (0.07, 0.19)	0.19 (0.15, 0.27)	0.16 (0.07, 0.35)
≥800 predominantly Aboriginal	11	130 (107, 158)	46.1 (37.5, 56.5)	18.9 (17.5, 20.5)	0.24 (0.18, 0.31)	0.42 (0.34, 0.54)	0.17 (0.10, 0.31)
predominantly non-Aboriginal	7	75 (50, 112)	59.1 (42.1, 83.1)	16.1 (14.4, 17.9)	0.27 (0.13, 0.42)	0.50 (0.15, 0.77)	0.10 (0.02, 0.46)
Total for nurses	51	148 (126, 163)	48.3 (42.3, 55.2)	12.6 (12.1, 13.2)	0.19 (0.15, 0.23)	0.31 (0.23, 0.38)	0.15 (0.10, 0.23)

Turnover and stability calculations done at an aggregate level for each category of population size
CI confidence interval, FTE full-time equivalent
^aAnnual stability rates were not estimated for two health services (both <200 population size category)
^bSurvival probability after 12 months was inestimable for one health service (<200 population size category)
^cPoisson distribution assumed

ISSN: 1478-4491