Do rurally focussed dental programs produce regional and rural dentists? An exploratory cross-sectional survey examining Australian dental graduates of 2015.

Abstract

[extract] The Australian dental workforce has increased significantly over the past decade; however, severe geographical maldistribution currently disadvantages those living in rural areas. Thus, recruiting and retaining dentists is a critical challenge for rural community health services. To strategically address the rural Australian workforce deficit with an educational intervention, three rurally focussed dental schools have been established since 2007, each with curricula providing students with additional education and training experiences informed by health delivery discrepancies between metropolitan and rural communities. However, while these new rurally focused dental schools have been operating for almost a decade, little has been done to investigate whether they are actually producing more rural dentists than their metropolitan counterparts. This study investigates the practice location of Australian dental graduates who completed their degrees from three rurally focussed and three metropolitan dental programs in 2015.