Assessment of attitude and perception of medical students towards rural health services in hilly region of Uttarakhand

Abstract

Introduction: There is acute shortage of efficient health care providers especially doctors in rural areas of our country. As per Census 2011 approximately 70% of Indian population resides in rural areas and hence possess a major challenge for the government as well policy makers to ensure availability of doctors in peripheral health post situated in rural and hard to reach areas of country. Objective: To explore the Attitude and Perception of medical students towards rural health services in hilly region of Uttrakhand. Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 282 MBBS students of 1 st , 3 rd and 5 th Semesters of Government Medical College of Uttarakhand. A predesigned, pretested, self-administered questionnaire was administered to the participants for data collection. Data was entered and analysed with SPSS software. Result: Among 282 MBBS Students, 64% showed interest to work in rural area. 68% females showed willingness to work in rural area compared to 57.6% of males and 78.9% study Participants belonging to rural areas showed interest to join rural health services compared to 57.8% belonging to urban area. Reasons identified for non-willingness to work in rural areas were less salary (73%), limited infrastructures in health facilities (92.6%), Delay in Post-Graduation (85.8%), limited scope of professional growth (85.1%), lack of educational opportunities for children and family amenities (84.4%), lack of recreational facilities in rural area (71.6%) and remote location areas (77.7%) and less opportunity to interact with colleagues of medical field (69.1%). Conclusion: Medical student's attitude and perception to work in rural health services need much improvement towards positive side by intervention and implementation by joint collaborative efforts of Medical Education Department, Health department and State Government.