Rural Undergraduate Support and Coordination, Rural Clinical School, and Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarship: rural undergraduate initiatives and subsequent rural medical workforce

Abstract

Background. This study examined postgraduate work after an undergraduate clinical year spent in the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA), compared with 6 weeks Rural Undergraduate Support and Coordination (RUSC)-funded rural experience in a 6-year undergraduate medical course. Rural background, sex and Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarship (RAMUS)-holding were taken into account. Methods. University of Western Australia undergraduate data were linked by hand with postgraduate placements to provide a comprehensive dataset on the rural exposure history of junior medical practitioners working in Western Australia between 2004 and 2007. Results. Participation in the RCSWA program was associated with significantly more postgraduate year one rural work than RUSC placement alone (OR = 1.5, CI 0.97–2.38). The RCSWA workforce effect increased at postgraduate year two (OR = 3.0, CI 1.6484 to 5.5935 relative to RUSC). Rural-origin practitioners who chose the RCSWA program were more likely than other rural-origin practitioners to take rural rotations in both postgraduate years. RAMUS holders’ choice in relation to the RCSWA program predicted later rural work. There were no effects of sex. Conclusions. Rural initiatives, in particular the Rural Clinical School program, are associated with postgraduate rural choices. The real impact of these data rely on the translation of early postgraduate choices into long-term work commitments. What is known about the topic? Specific training of rural graduates is strongly related to subsequent rural workforce. In addition, rural educational placements affect medical students’ intentions to practise rurally. Retrospective data from rural relative to urban general practitioners link rural background, rural undergraduate experience and rural postgraduate experience with rural work. What does this paper add? Much of the Australian prospective outcomes research has looked at workforce intentions of graduates, or the workforce outcomes of small graduate cohorts of Rural Clinical Schools. This paper followed nearly 500 graduates by name through to their PGY1 and PGY2 workforce decisions. As this cohort comprised 80% of three completely graduated MBBS years, these data validly represent the outcome of a medical school which is comparable to all Australian medical schools in its RUSC, Rural Clinical School and RAMUS recipients. The paper provides the first peer-reviewed outcomes data for the RAMUS scholarship program. What are the implications for practitioners? Rural supervision of medical students is an effective way to recruit new workforce. The longer students are supervised in rural settings, the better. But undergraduate programs need to be linked with postgraduate initiatives that take graduates of medical student initiatives into vocational programs able to deliver a trained rural workforce.