Educating Physicians for Rural America: Validating Successes and Identifying Remaining Challenges With the Rural Medical Scholars Program

Wheat, John R.; Leeper, James D.; Murphy, Shannon; Brandon, John; Jackson, James R.

doi:10.1111/jrh.12236

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…The Rural Medical Scholars Program (RMS) is a 5‐year program combining rural community health (either certificate or master's degree) and medical studies with rural emphasis at a clinical branch campus of the University of Alabama School of Medicine. We evaluated component programs’ processes and outcomes 14 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 finding positive results; however, we had not taken an overview of the pipeline for responsiveness to rural counties.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pipeline Programs Can Support Reforms in Medical Education: A Cohort Study of Alabama's Rural Health Leaders Pipeline to Engage Community Leaders

Wheat

Leeper

2020

The Journal of Rural Health

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Purpose:To demonstrate for county leaders the utility of rural pipelines to gain physicians and produce health professionals.Methods: This cohort study, 1993-2018, aggregated 1,051 students in the Rural Health Leaders Pipeline to their home counties (N = 67) to study the relationship between county participation in pipeline programs and outcomes of family physicians gained and health professionals produced. Additional county demographics were included. We conducted descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable linear regression analyses controlling for poverty, race, and rurality. Findings: All 67 Alabama counties participated with means of 9.6 Rural Health Scholars, 2.7 Rural Minority Health Scholars, 3.4 Rural Medical Scholars, 67% rural population, 29.7% Black population, and 21.5% under poverty. Best regression model for gaining family physicians included Rural Medical Scholars involved (b = 0.24, P < .001) with R 2 0.30, indicating a county gained 1 family physician for 4 students. Best model for health professionals included Rural Health Scholars involved (b = 0.20, P < .001) with R 2 0.31, indicating production of 1 health professional for 5 students. Best model for any professional included Rural Health Scholars involved (b = 0.23, P < .001) with R 2 0.35, indicating 1 professional produced for 4 students.Conclusions: Rural pipeline programs can be useful tools in medical education reform to benefit counties with the gain of family physicians and production of health professionals. Local public officials could use these findings, eg, 1 family physician gained for every 4 students a county involved in the pipeline, to advocate that health professional education employ such pipelines.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pipeline Programs Can Support Reforms in Medical Education: A Cohort Study of Alabama's Rural Health Leaders Pipeline to Engage Community Leaders

Wheat

Leeper

2020

The Journal of Rural Health

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“…In China, traditional medical education produces few rural physicians. One solution to overcome this problem is to train more physicians who identify with and desire to practice among rural communities [ 2 ]. Several studies referred to rural upbringing and the choice of family medicine as a specialization as factors strongly associated with rural practice [ 3 ], suggesting that students with a rural background, rural practice intent, or more excellent service orientation should be recruited into rural practice [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job satisfaction of graduates of rural oriented medical students training project in Jiangsu Province, China: a cross-sectional study

et al. 2022

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Background The Chinese government has worked out the “Rural Oriented Medical Students Training Project” to address physician maldistribution, which attempted to train physicians for rural areas. The present study attempted to evaluate the job satisfaction of the graduates of this project in Jiangsu Province, China. Methods Online questionnaires were sent to the graduates of the “Rural Oriented Medical Students Training Project” (group A) and their colleagues, who were rural physicians recruited from different sources (group B). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xuzhou Medical University, and the approval number was 2,018,057. Information on demographic characteristics, work conditions, and self-reported satisfaction was collected to compare the satisfaction differences between the two recruited rural physicians using the Chi-square test and Mann–Whitney U test. Additionally, factors correlated to the satisfaction of group A were assessed using multivariate linear regression. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Group A exhibited moderate satisfaction (2.81 ± 0.687). The satisfaction score from the highest to the lowest was for occupational ecology, life satisfaction, stress, competency, and internal environment. Positive factors related to the satisfaction of group A were area, monthly income, working hours per week, professional title, and post. Conclusion The satisfaction of the graduates of the “Rural Oriented Medical Students Training Project” was moderate. Factors related to satisfaction included economic incentives, workload, and professional confidence. Possible solutions for increasing satisfaction should consist of economic support and possible ways to improve the professional identification of these graduates.

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“…There is a burgeoning belief that regional medical campuses and community based distributive medical education can significantly impact the healthcare delivered in rural and underserved communities. 9,10,11 Medical student exposure to rural practice settings makes them more likely to eventually practice there. 6,11,12 Communities that have regional medical campuses are also better able to access the developing physician workforce, and better recruit as well as retain medical graduates in their communities.…”

Section: Regional Medical Campuses and Distributive Medical Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…9,10,11 Medical student exposure to rural practice settings makes them more likely to eventually practice there. 6,11,12 Communities that have regional medical campuses are also better able to access the developing physician workforce, and better recruit as well as retain medical graduates in their communities. 6,12 Only 1 percent of medical care in the United States occurs at tertiary care centers, and a one to one studentclinical preceptor community teaching model exposes students to physicians who they may emulate by going into practice in similar rural and underserved communities.…”

Section: Regional Medical Campuses and Distributive Medical Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Two Regional Campus Systems and their Impact on Addressing Health Care Needs of the Underserved

Rahangdale¹

2018

JRMC

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A major impact of the late 1970s Carnegie Commission on Higher Education’s report titled Higher Education and the Nation’s Health was the funding and development of Area Health Education Centers (AHECs).1 AHECs were located in rural and medically underserved areas in the states, with a goal of developing medical education programs to improve the manpower needs of these underserved communities.1 The University of North Carolina School of Medicine (UNC SOM), developed such a network in the 1970s to accomplish this task,2 and this paper reflects upon the success of the UNC AHEC system as well as the Florida State University College of Medicine (FSU COM), regional campus distributive education model in achieving this goal. The legislature of the State of Florida specially created FSU COM with a mission focused on producing primary care doctors and physicians who serve the needs of rural, geriatric, underserved, and minority populations.3 FSU COM’s distributive medical education system has successfully accomplished this mission.3,4 I completed medical school and residency in the UNC AHEC system, and I am currently a regional campus Dean at FSU COM.

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Educating Physicians for Rural America: Validating Successes and Identifying Remaining Challenges With the Rural Medical Scholars Program

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Pipeline Programs Can Support Reforms in Medical Education: A Cohort Study of Alabama's Rural Health Leaders Pipeline to Engage Community Leaders

Pipeline Programs Can Support Reforms in Medical Education: A Cohort Study of Alabama's Rural Health Leaders Pipeline to Engage Community Leaders

Job satisfaction of graduates of rural oriented medical students training project in Jiangsu Province, China: a cross-sectional study

A Comparison of Two Regional Campus Systems and their Impact on Addressing Health Care Needs of the Underserved

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