Why rural students practise rurally

THE combination of a rural background and rural undergraduate training has a multiplier effect on the likelihood of medical graduates practising outside metropolitan areas, a study has found.

A Toowoomba doctor has led a University of Queensland research team and found medical graduates with a rural background and two years of rural training were 10 times more likely to practise in rural areas than those with a metropolitan background.

Toowoomba doctor and UQ Rural Clinical School professorial research fellow Geoff Nicholson said each year of rural training doubled the likelihood of rural practice for students.

“While specialists are less likely than general practitioners to work in rural areas, 16% versus 39%, the pattern of effects of rural exposures are similar for both,” he said.

“The proportion of graduates who attended a rural clinical school for two years was much smaller among specialists than GPs.

“A possible factor is that the scarcity of specialist training positions in the bush results in students being keen to return to metropolitan clinical units.”

Compared to specialists with a metropolitan background, those with a rural background who had attended rural clinical schools for two years were 16-times more likely to be practising rurally.

The study was based on a survey of 729 graduates from UQ’s medicine program between 2002 and 2011, and data from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

UQ’s Rural Clinical School has operated since 2002 with teaching sites in Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay allowing students to complete one or two years of clinical training in a regional setting.