BACKGROUND: This study followed the workforce choices of 10-years of graduates from a longitudinal rural immersion programme, which involved living for one academic year in a rural location as a medical student. The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia is a whole-of-state Rural Clinical School partnership involving two medical schools and fourteen rural/remote towns. METHOD: For this longitudinal cohort study, all consenting graduates were contacted annually after graduation, with the outcome measure being rural work location (defined by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification -Remoteness Area) of any duration. RESULTS: There were 417 consenting graduates. Between 16 and 50% of contacted alumni worked rurally for a period of each post-graduate year. Aggregated over time, the majority took up to 30% of their postgraduate training rurally. There was considerable movement in and out of rural work. About 17% of contacted and practicing graduates were working full time rurally at the 2013 contact point. The majority remained in their state of training. The majority identified with GP and other rural-related colleges, and College-affiliation predicted amount of rural training time. Entry into rural work was equivalent for urban-origin and rural origin alumni, suggesting one year of RCS is sufficient to convert commitment to rural work. CONCLUSION: Undergraduate rural immersion is sufficient to create a graduate rural workforce that is far more mobile that was previously appreciated.
BACKGROUND: This study followed the workforce choices of 10-years of graduates from a longitudinal rural immersion programme, which involved living for one academic year in a rural location as a medical student. The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia is a whole-of-state Rural Clinical School partnership involving two medical schools and fourteen rural/remote towns. METHOD: For this longitudinal cohort study, all consenting graduates were contacted annually after graduation, with the outcome measure being rural work location (defined by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification -Remoteness Area) of any duration. RESULTS: There were 417 consenting graduates. Between 16 and 50% of contacted alumni worked rurally for a period of each post-graduate year. Aggregated over time, the majority took up to 30% of their postgraduate training rurally. There was considerable movement in and out of rural work. About 17% of contacted and practicing graduates were working full time rurally at the 2013 contact point. The majority remained in their state of training. The majority identified with GP and other rural-related colleges, and College-affiliation predicted amount of rural training time. Entry into rural work was equivalent for urban-origin and rural origin alumni, suggesting one year of RCS is sufficient to convert commitment to rural work. CONCLUSION: Undergraduate rural immersion is sufficient to create a graduate rural workforce that is far more mobile that was previously appreciated.
Authors: Hannah Beks; Sandra Walsh; Laura Alston; Martin Jones; Tony Smith; Darryl Maybery; Keith Sutton; Vincent L Versace Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-01-27 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Gillian Marion Scanlan; Jennifer Cleland; Suzanne Anderson Stirling; Kim Walker; Peter Johnston Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2019-08-05 Impact factor: 2.692