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Preparedness for rural community leadership and its impact on practice location of family medicine graduates
Author(s) -
Woloschuk Wayne,
Crutcher Rodney,
Szafran Olga
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1854.2004.00637.x
Subject(s) - preparedness , medicine , psychological intervention , rural area , family medicine , rural health , odds , odds ratio , nursing , logistic regression , management , pathology , economics
Objective: To identify non‐clinical dimensions of preparedness for rural practice and to determine whether preparedness for rural practice is predictive of rural practice location.Design: Cross‐sectional postal survey mailed in 2001.Setting: Communities across Canada where graduates were practising.Subjects: Graduates (n = 369) of the family medicine residency program at the universities of Alberta (U of A) and Calgary (U of C) between 1996 and 2000, inclusive.Interventions: Using a 4‐point scale, graduates rated the extent to which the residency program prepared them for eight dimensions of rural practice: clinical demands of rural practice, understanding rural culture, small community living, balancing work and personal life, establishing personal/professional boundaries, becoming a community leader, handling a ‘fish bowl’ lifestyle, and choosing a suitable community.Main outcome measure: Identification of non‐clinical dimensions of preparedness for rural practice and whether scores on preparedness scales are predictive of rural practice location.Results: The overall response rate was 76.4%. Factor analysis of the eight preparedness items produced two factors, ‘rural culture’ and ‘rural community leader’ which explained 72% of the variance. The alpha coefficient for each factor was 0.87. Odds ratios revealed that family medicine graduates prepared for rural community leadership roles were 1.92 (CI = 1.03–3.61) times more likely to be in rural practice. Rural physicians were also 2.14 (CI = 1.13–4.03) times as likely to have a rural background.Conclusions: Preparedness to be a rural community leader and having a rural background were predictive of rural practice. Educators should consider this in both family medicine residency admissions policy and practice and when designing and implementing family medicine residency curricula.