Abstract
The United States is experiencing a physician shortage and rural areas are especially impacted. Programs exist to recruit college and medical students to work in rural areas, but few programs are focused on the high school “pipeline.” Medical students, residents and physicians who have lived in rural areas are more likely to practice in those areas. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a workshop to educate rural high school students about preparing for health professions careers. Evaluations of the workshop were positive and indicated increased knowledge and interest in careers in medicine and health professions. It is somewhat promising that even a brief educational program has the potential to increase interest of rural high school students to pursue medical or health professions careers, and perhaps ultimately increase the number of those practicing in rural areas. The authors discuss limitations and suggest changes for future workshop presentations.
Highlights
This workshop was presented just once to 50 physician, or other health professional with a similar students in one high school located in a rural area of New Hampshire
A 2019 report from the National Rural Health Association stated that the ratio of primary care physicians to patients in rural areas was 39.8 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 53.3 physicians per 100,000 people in urban areas; individuals in rural areas have a 22% higher risk of injury-related death compared to individuals in nonrural areas
Other topics to be added to the workshop content are average tuition costs and average student loan debt for those pursuing education for careers in medicine and the health professions, and more personal anecdotes related to the presenter’s journey to medical school and to her life as a medical student, e.g., how she chose her future career as a physician, what extracurricular activities she participated in or wished she had participated in during high school, college and medical school, and more generally what life was like as a medical student
Summary
The United States is experiencing a physician shortage and rural areas are especially impacted. The goal of this project was to create an educational workshop as an addition to other college counseling experiences offered to rural high school students, to provide students with information and opportunities early to encourage them to pursue a medical/health professions career, and to connect with a role model. The specific idea to design a motivational workshop for high school students emanated from the personal experience of the lead author who graduated from a rural New Hampshire high school and at the time of presentation was a medical student Even though her thoughts of becoming a physician started at a young age, she received limited guidance toward pursuing her desired career, and entered college with little information about what was necessary to study medicine and become a physician. The workshop was designed to motivate and encourage students to begin the journey to learn more about a possible career, and to set individual/personal short- and long-term goals
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