Family medicine
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Scarce evidence exists in the medical literature describing the attitudes of rural community residents about the impact of losing their local physician. This pilot study explores aspects of access to care, both within and outside of primary care settings, that result from loss of a rural family physician. ⋯ Our findings suggest that rural physicians offer tremendous value to their communities, both inside and beyond their clinic walls. Issues of social cohesion and local health leadership affected by physician loss should be addressed by policy makers and educators charged with designing patient-centered solutions to improve health outcomes in rural communities. Current health and medical education reforms would benefit from greater focused attention on these issues.
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Antibiotic misuse contributes to antibiotic resistance and is a growing public health threat in the United States and globally. Professional medical societies promote antibiotic stewardship education for medical students, ideally before inappropriate practice habits form. To our knowledge, no tools exist to assess medical student competency in antibiotic stewardship and the communication skills necessary to engage patients in this endeavor. The aim of this study was to develop a novel instrument to measure medical students' communication skills and competency in antibiotic stewardship and patient counseling. ⋯ Similar results at both schools supported external validity. The instrument performed reliably at both institutions under different examination conditions, providing evidence for the validity and utility of this instrument in assessing medical students' skills related to antibiotic stewardship.
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Medical students who train in rural communities are often exposed to physicians practicing a broad scope of care, regardless of discipline. We examined how rural education is associated with practice specialization rates for students who match in primary care or general core specialties. ⋯ Rurally-trained graduates are more likely to practice primary care, chiefly due to increased likelihood of choosing a FM residency. Graduates entering PC or general core residencies subspecialize at similar rates regardless of rural or urban education. FM residency match rate may be the best predictor of long-lasting impact on the primary care workforce.