Implications of increased student intake on rural rotations in Australian medical schools

Abstract

There has been significant growth in the intake of medical students in Australia in recent years, particularly between 2003 and 2007, where the intake increased by an average of 12.3% each year 2 . Reports indicate that despite the substantial annual growth of medical student intake, the supply of clinical teachers and patients for teaching has remained static. This raises the question as to whether or not there will be sufficient rural preceptors to give all students an adequate experience in rural medicine. As a student-initiated research project at the Rural Clinical School of the University of Queensland, we surveyed each of the Australian medical schools to collect information on the type of rural training they offer and, where applicable, data on student placements at RUSC sites during 2008 and 2009 at the participating medical schools. Of the 14 medical schools that were providing RUSC placements for their students in those years, 10 medical schools responded with analysable data. The rural sites that hosted students in both years of the study were analysed as a subset, and the number of students in 2008 was subtracted from the number of students in 2009 for each site, in order to determine whether or not individual rural sites are hosting more students in 2009 than in the previous year.