How a Short Rural Placement can Change Medical Students’ View about Rural Practice
An article recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia has looked at whether a short-term placement of Melbourne-based metropolitan medical students in a rural environment significantly improves their knowledge of, and their attitudes to rural health issues. Since 2004, all the medical school students of the University of Melbourne have to undergo the compulsory Rural Health Module (RHM) run by the Rural Health Academic Centre.
In 3-week RHM held in March and May 2013, the students were invited to participate in a focus group study. The participants were requested to complete the questionnaire on three stages; before RHM, after 2-day rural orientation, and after completing the RHM.
69 of the 101 RHM students participated in the first focus group and questionnaire, 50 participated in the second, and 54 participated in the third.
The focus group identified five main themes, which are:
- Access, mainly about lack of amenities and affordability of health care to rural people.
- Teamwork, models of care and generalist practice, including support of other staff.
- Overlapping relationships, how the doctor and patient relationship outside the clinic affects the holistic care.
- Indigenous health, and how this orientation helped students to understand more about its importance.
- Working in a rural career.
The students’ opinion in making a career in rural area were varied. Their responses were based on the reason; lifestyle advantage and disadvantage; separation from metropolitan friends and family; and lack of training opportunity and career development.
The statistic of students’ responses to the statement “I would like to work in a rural environment” is seen in the table below:
|
Response in the First Questionnaire |
Total Students |
Response in the Final Questionnaire |
Total Students |
|
Yes |
6 |
Yes |
6 |
|
Maybe |
36 |
Yes |
8 |
|
Maybe |
26 |
||
|
No |
2 |
||
|
No |
12 |
Yes |
1 |
|
|
Maybe |
9 |
|
|
|
No |
2 |
The study showed that after undertaking 3 weeks RHM, there were improvements in view of medical students towards rural practice, but it was not tested whether the students would decide to pursue it. It was likely that the longer the rural placement, the more likely the students to choose rural career, but how long the placement would be has not yet known.
It was suggested that if the students were completed the RHM motivated by personal interest, the result would possibly have been different.
Click here to access the study published by The Medical Journal of Australia.
Image: DIBP Images – flickr