Introduction
There is a shortage of rural doctors. Less access to healthcare results in poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy. The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA), School of Medicine, Sydney participates in Commonwealth requirements in the pursuit of bolstering rural retention of medical graduates.
Aim
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Rural Clinical School (RCS) program at the UNDA School of Medicine, Sydney and identify significant predictors in its ten-year span. The utility of these predictors will be gauged by how many RCS participants work in the rural workforce.
Method/Description
UNDA Sydney graduates were identified from UNDA graduation lists and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) across March to November 2021, generating 1076 participants. Of these, 22% participated in the RCS program. Variables collected included but were not limited to, rural origin, clinical school exposure, bonded medical status and rural vs. metropolitan location of practice in 2021. Univariate logistic regressions were used to identify significant variables for inclusion into the multivariate logistic regressions, with significant results reported as the odds ratio (OR) at the 95% confidence interval.
Results
Graduates of rural origin who participated in the RCS program were more likely to be working rurally than those who participated in Metropolitan Clinical School (MCS), OR = 5.4; [3.1 – 9.3] vs. 2.3 [1.5 – 3.6. Graduates of metropolitan origin who participated in the RCS were the least likely to be working rurally, OR 1.2 [0.8 – 2.1].
Consclusions
This study confirmed that RCS participation and rural origin significantly increase the likelihood of rural practice and that each have independent effects. Raw fellowship data suggests that at fellowship level, the impact of RCS and rural origin of the UNDA rural workforce is yet to be manifested.