Using evaluation to improve medical student rural experience.

Conclusions The interventions contributed to a more effective rural medical education experience, providing students with the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge relevant for rural medicine and to gain an understanding of the context in which rural medicine is practiced.What is known about the topic? Many Australian medical schools offer students rural-based educational opportunities based on the premise that placing medical students in a rural setting may ultimately lead to them choosing careers in rural medicine. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the factors that are considered necessary for medical students to gain a positive rural experience of short conscripted rural placements.What does the paper add? This paper identifies successful interventions to the rotation and placements that provide a positive experience of the rural clinical placement for students. These interventions occurred within an ongoing evaluation program embedded in the rotation.What are the implications for practitioners? Through ongoing evaluation, interventions can be selected and implemented that succeed in contributing to students having a positive rural clinical placement experience. This paper demonstrates how an embedded continuous improvement program serves to provide direction for ongoing modifications. PMID: 26254631 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research