Accepted Type
Oral
Code
OG1-2-4
Acceptance Declaration
Accept
Additional Information
I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.
Was this work accepted for CCME 2020?
yes
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Will the presenter be a:
Other
Presenter Other
Faculty
Affiliation
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
A student's background is important to rural and northern practice recruitment, but what about rural placements?
Length of Presentation
Background/Purpose
Rural communities remain medically underserved due to the maldistribution of health professionals. Substantial modifications to selection processes and curricula in health profession education programs aim to increase recruitment and retention in rural locations, but evidence of their impact has been inconclusive.
Methods
Five years of student data (n = 281) from the Master of Physical Therapy program at the University of British Columbia was analyzed with multiple binary logistic regression to identify which 'nature' (background) and 'nurture' (exposure to rural practice settings) indicators were most predictive of rural and northern practice outcomes.
Results
Students with a rural background were 2.7 times more likely to go into rural practice and those with a non-science degree were 5.2 times more likely. For every one additional clinical placement completed in a rural community, students were 1.6 times more likely to go into rural practice.
Students with a rural background were 6.2 times more likely to go into northern practice. At admission, for every one-point increase in self-reported intent to practice rural/remote, students were 3.8 times more likely to go into northern practice and those with interest in northern practice were 5.8 times more likely to go into northern practice.
Conclusion
Nature (rural background, non-science degree) and nurture (number of rural clinical placements) predicted rural practice. However, only nature (rural background, interest in northern or rural/remote practice) predicted northern practice. Therefore, modifications to both admissions criteria and curricula are needed to address maldistribution of physiotherapists.
Keyword 1
rural recruitment
Keyword 2
clinical placement
Keyword 3
admissions
Level of Training
General
Abstract Themes
Distributed Medical Education
Additional Theme (First choice)
Admissions
Additional Theme (Second Choice)
Additional Theme (Third Choice)
Authors
Presenter
Robin Roots
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
