Rural Remote Health
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Rural Remote Health · Jan 2012
Medical student characteristics predictive of intent for rural practice.
The shortage of physicians in rural areas of the USA has led medical schools to focus on recruiting and selecting students who will choose to work in non-urban settings. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of student characteristics previously correlated to choosing rural practice (ie being older, being male, being raised in a rural community, having a spouse or significant other who was raised in a rural community, having a spouse or significant other whose parents live in a rural community, having parents with high school education or less, and graduating from a smaller college) on osteopathic medical students' intent to practice in a rural setting. This study also examined the correlation between personality type and intent for rural practice using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Finally, this study examined factors that would increase interest in practicing in a rural setting, such as financial assistance and students' opinions about physicians who choose to practice in rural areas. ⋯ The results of this study support past research showing that medical students with a rural background and with spouses or significant others having a rural background are more likely to have intent for rural practice. This study also found that students' personality types may be correlated with intent to practice in a rural area. In order to provide physicians who will serve the population living in rural areas of the USA, it is imperative that medical schools select students who are most likely to practice in a non-urban setting. Financial incentives are important to students, suggesting that programs such as loan forgiveness may be useful in recruiting students to rural practice. Medical students may benefit from career counseling utilizing the MBTI to facilitate an understanding of personality type and how it may impact their preference for rural practice.
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Rural Remote Health · Jan 2012
Recruiting and retaining rural students: evidence from a faculty of dentistry in South Africa.
There is a shortage internationally of adequately trained health professionals to service rural areas. Health professionals are more likely to practice in communities that are like the one in which they grew up. The WHO therefore suggests targeted university admission policies to facilitate the enrolment of students from rural areas. In South Africa, rural students have special needs with regard to university access and throughput because they come from the most economically disadvantaged communities and often are the first in their families to attend university. This descriptive study, the first in South Africa with a cohort of dentistry students, draws on data from undergraduates at a single faculty of dentistry in South Africa. It investigates the factors affecting rural students' access to university, their academic success, as well as their employment intentions. ⋯ Only a minority of dentistry students came from rural areas, and rural schools did not adequately prepare these students academically for university. Rural students also lacked immediate access to people with insight into the academic and socio-cultural aspects of higher education, including the process of independent learning. Despite financial and academic challenges, rural students had a significantly stronger commitment to rural employment than students from cities and towns. It is recommended that rural students should receive academic, financial, and mentoring support both before and during their studies.