Underserved region recruitment and return to practice: a thirty-year analysis.

The purpose of this investigation was a retrospective analysis of a select group of graduates from the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) over a thirty-year history to determine how many of these individuals came from the Appalachian Region of Eastern Kentucky, which historically has been economically depressed and underserved by health care practitioners including dentists. This same group of dental school graduates was then tracked to see if they established dental practices in the Appalachian region of the state. Recruiting trends were investigated by reviewing student records regarding county of origin from targeted classes at UKCD in 1969, 1979, and 1989 to gain ten-year incremental, historical perspectives. To identify more recent trends, classes graduating in 1994 through 1999 were reviewed. Once identified, the databank of the Kentucky Board of Dentistry was used to determine if these individuals reported practicing in counties of Kentucky designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The findings of this study indicate an alarming decline both in numbers of students being recruited from this underserved area and a concomitant decline in those recruits returning to ARC-designated counties in the state. This study establishes the need for persistent diligence in recruitment of students from underserved areas and challenges dental schools to create strategies that will encourage their graduates to establish practices in these regions.