Rural Graduates Research Articles

Removing Caps for rural graduate medical education: A policy recommendation to eliminate GME Caps of less than 16 for rurally located hospitals.

Removing Caps for rural graduate medical education: A policy recommendation to eliminate GME Caps of less than 16 for rurally located hospitals.

Early career nurses’ self-reported influences and drawbacks for undertaking a rural graduate nursing program

Early career nurses’ self-reported influences and drawbacks for undertaking a rural graduate nursing program

“Can We Get an Ideal Job?”: The Distribution and Influencing Factors of the Occupational Stratum of Chinese College Graduates

In recent years, Chinese college graduates have faced a challenging employment situation, calling for an analysis of the social stratification function of higher education. This paper used linear regression to analyze factors influencing the occupational status attainment of college graduates. The social stratification function of higher education was found to be significant. Educational factors were essential for occupational status attainment. Nevertheless, new graduates’ occupational status could also be affected by individual and family factors. On the whole, college graduates achieved stratum promotion. Men had higher occupational status and longer mobility distance than women, and rural graduates had higher occupational status and longer mobility distance than urban graduates.

Rural Versus Urban Family Medicine Residency Scope of Training and Practice.

Little is known about how rural and urban family medicine residencies compare in preparing physicians for practice. This study compared the perceptions of preparation for practice and actual postgraduation scope of practice (SOP) between rural and urban residency program graduates. We analyzed data on 6,483 early-career, board-certified physicians surveyed 2016-2018, 3 years after residency graduation, and 44,325 later-career board-certified physicians surveyed 2014-2018, every 7 to 10 years after initial certification. Bivariate comparisons and multivariate regressions of rural and urban residency graduates examined perceived preparedness and current practice in 30 areas and overall SOP using a validated scale, with separate models for early-career and later-career physicians. In bivariate analyses, rural program graduates were more likely than urban program graduates to report being prepared for hospital-based care, casting, cardiac stress tests, and other skills, but less likely to be prepared in some gynecologic care and pharmacologic HIV/AIDS management. Both early- and later-career rural program graduates reported broader overall SOPs than their urban-program counterparts in bivariate analyses; in adjusted analyses this difference remained significant only for later-career physicians. Compared with urban program graduates, rural graduates more often rated themselves prepared in several hospital care measures and less often in certain women's health measures. Controlling for multiple characteristics, only rurally trained, later-career physicians reported a broader SOP than their urban program counterparts. This study demonstrates the value of rural training and provides a baseline for research exploring longitudinal benefits of this training to rural communities and population health.

Rural Internal Medicine Residencies: Models, Facilitators, Barriers, and Equity Considerations.

Rural communities in the USA on average experience higher mortality rates and greater physician shortages than urban communities, especially rural communities that are historically Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native. Graduate medical education resources in the USA are concentrated within teaching hospitals in non-rural settings. The federal government has recently established several pathways to expand rural graduate medical education. In the 2010s, most of the expansion and innovation in rural graduate medical education occurred in family medicine. In the 2020s, internal medicine has also begun to increase its rural graduate medical education footprint. Rural internal medicine residency training models include Rural Track Programs (RTPs), in which training is split between urban and rural training sites. RTPs, though the cornerstone of rural residency expansion in family medicine, raise complex issues in internal medicine. We review the structure of RTPs, alternate rural residency training pathways, and the facilitators and challenges of each pathway with respect to internal medicine training.

Return of Education Investment in China: A Case Comparison Between Rural and Urban Students

Business English was officially approved to be an undergraduate major in China in 2007, which set off throughout China a boom of establishing Business English as undergraduate majors in educational institutions. Students swarm towards schools with Business English programs assuming their high job prospects after graduation. This study is a follow-up study comparing the return of education investment for two groups of graduates in Business English, one group graduating in 2013 as the first graduates of Business English in Guangzhou, the other group graduating in 2017. Online surveys were conducted to investigate whether urban and rural students differ in terms of starting salary, job prospects and further study decisions after they've completed the same popular program, and how their family backgrounds might affect their education decisions. Four years ago, a pilot survey confirmed such a gap between rural and urban students in their jobs and future; but the follow-up study four years later find that a change is taking place: rural and urban graduates are hardly distinguishable in their salaries and career decisions. The comparison of the serial studies suggests a higher rate of return for rural graduates in Business English program. Although this is only a case study for one particular program, it provides a window to rethink how opportunities and challenges surface for rural students amongst China's education expansion and the national urbanization movement.

New Opportunities for Expanding Rural Graduate Medical Education to Improve Rural Health Outcomes: Implications of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.

Evidence shows that those living in rural communities experience consistently worse health outcomes than their urban and suburban counterparts. One proven strategy to address this disparity is to increase the physician supply in rural areas through graduate medical education (GME) training. However, rural hospitals have faced challenges developing training programs in these underserved areas, largely due to inadequate federal funding for rural GME. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) contains multiple provisions that seek to address disparities in Medicare funding for rural GME, including funding for an increase in rural GME positions or "slots" (Section 126), expansion of rural training opportunities (Section 127), and relief for hospitals that have very low resident payments and/or caps (Section 131). In this Invited Commentary, the authors describe historical factors that have impeded the growth of training programs in rural areas, summarize the implications of each CAA provision for rural GME, and provide guidance for institutions seeking to avail themselves of the opportunities presented by the CAA. These policy changes create new opportunities for rural hospitals and partnering urban medical centers to bolster rural GME training, and consequently the physician workforce in underserved communities.

Rural Graduate Medical Education: Choosing the Road "Less Traveled By".

Despite active efforts to improve access to health care for people who live in rural communities, the need for developing a physician workforce that is committed to rural practice, and with the professional and personal skills that will best fit with the needs of the rural community, is only increasing over time. Supporting and solidifying the rural graduate medical education landscape must be a crucial piece of any plan to address gaps in rural health care. Embracing creative solutions that address the most important barriers to this development has high potential for meeting the health care needs of rural communities, with emphasis on the rural community stakeholders assuming the central role in planning efforts. In particular, essential innovations include developing a culture of learning in rural settings using concepts of a teaching health neighborhood and advancing interprofessional models of care; incorporating concepts of "place-based training" with focus on relational connectedness; enhancing a spectrum of potential partnerships, including rural and urban regional entities, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and other federal agencies (e.g., the Indian Health Service and Veterans Health Administration among others) to support the ability of rural health entities to embrace medical education; and advocating for federal and state funding initiatives to ensure the sustainability of training programs in rural communities. Although not sufficient to guarantee improved access to health care and better health outcomes among rural communities, robust collaborations to develop interprofessional training and enhancement of the entire pipeline of health professions training and practice holds significant promise for improving the health of rural populations.

Analysis of Employability Skills Among Rural Graduates

The purpose of education is to bring out the good qualities that are hidden among students. Education enlightens and creates new job avenues for the graduates to hone their employability skills. Employers look for graduates who are acquainted with expected employability skills fit for the job market. Academicians and academic institutes have a vital role in imparting knowledge and shaping the future of graduates. Employability skill creates new hopes and promises to the graduates to secure a promised job. Employability skill is well described as the attributes, knowledge, and skills possessed by graduates during the academic pursuit. As employability skill is becoming more important for the graduates to get good placement, it is the need of the hour to explore new ways of imparting employability skill among the graduates. This article aims at exploring the existing literature on employability skills among graduates. The purpose of this study is to analyze the various dimensions, categories, and frameworks of employability skills among graduate students. This article identifies the gap that is existing between academic institutions and employers. This paper focuses also on the important skills that are expected by employers in the 21st century.

Retention in rural speech and language therapy: The impact of rural tertiary education in Australia

BACKGROUND: Recruitment and retention of skilled health workers into rural areas is a major challenge to achieving equity in health between rural and urban populations. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the impact of rurally-based tertiary education in promoting the recruitment and retention of speech and language therapists (SLTs) in non-metropolitan areas and intention to remain in the profession. METHODS: Participants in this cohort study were 133 graduates from a rurally-based speech and language therapy course in Australia who completed the course between 1998 and 2018. Data were collected via an online survey. Data were analysed using inferential statistics, ArcGIS mapping software and content analysis in NVivo12. RESULTS: 65.0% of the graduates practiced in rural or remote areas with just 21.1% practicing in major cities. Most participants’ ideal work location was in a rural area. Benefits of rural practice included seeing a mixed caseload, living near family, work/life balance and loving their location. Challenges of rural practice included limited opportunities for specialist caseloads and career progression. In total, 93.2% of the rural graduates intended to remain in the speech and language therapy profession for the next 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that SLTs who are trained in rural areas with a focus on servicing rural populations are highly likely to enter and remain in rural practice, consistent with the rural pipeline model.

Approaches Used to Describe, Measure, and Analyze Place of Practice in Dentistry, Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Rural Graduate Workforce Research in Australia: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Redressing the maldistribution of the health workforce in regional, rural, and remote geographical areas is a global issue and crucial to improving the accessibility of primary health care and specialist services. Geographical classification systems are important as they provide an objective and quantifiable measure of access and can have direct policy relevance, yet they are not always consistently applied in rural health research. It is unclear how research focusing on the graduate health workforce in Australia has described, measured, and analyzed place of practice. To examine approaches used, this review systematically scopes Australian rural studies focusing on dentistry, medicine, nursing, and allied health graduates that have included place of practice as an outcome measure. The Joanna Brigg’s Institute Scoping Review Methodology was used to guide the review. Database searches retrieved 1130 unique citations, which were screened, resulting in 62 studies for inclusion. Included studies were observational, with most focusing on the practice locations of medical graduates and predicators of rural practice. Variations in the use of geographical classification approaches to define rurality were identified and included the use of systems that no longer have policy relevance, as well as adaptations of existing systems that make future comparisons between studies challenging. It is recommended that research examining the geographical distribution of the rural health workforce use uniform definitions of rurality that are aligned with current government policy.

Rural students’ achievement goal orientation choices: A qualitative analysis of the influential individuals and factors

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the influences on 32 rural Iranian high school students’ adoption of achievement goals. To this end, the high school students took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The outcomes indicated the high school students’ goal orientation adoption was impacted by a host of significant individuals in four contexts: (1) school (e.g. teachers, classmates), (2) family (e.g. parents, relatives), (3) rural community (e.g. neighbors and rural university graduates) and (4) media (e.g. counselors on TV). Likewise, various factors (i.e. social, psychological, economic, educational, rural, biological and religious) also appeared to influence their achievement goal adoption. Results may have implications for various stakeholders such as educational authorities, policy makers, researchers and significant others (e.g. teachers, counselors, parents, among many others).

Self-Efficacy and Concerns of Graduate Nursing Students Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: Many nurse practitioner students work as nurses while balancing family obligations and graduate school work. The purpose of this project is to learn more about the self-efficacy and concerns of rural graduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sample: Family nurse practitioner students at a rural, public, liberal arts university in the Southeastern United States participated in the study. Method: Demographic information and survey information was obtained from graduate nursing students to assess their self-efficacy and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, using the 10-item General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale. Findings: Respondents reported varied effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on work schedules. The mean GSE self-efficacy score was 3.32 across two-time points (n=67). Nine qualitative themes were revealed: concerns about contracting and transmitting COVID-19, importance of personal protective equipment and hygiene, impacts at home, stress, decreased clinical placements, coping strategies, public health preparedness, future effects of COVID-10, and a renewed commitment to nursing. Conclusion: This study provides insight into the experiences of rural graduate nursing students caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords: graduate nursing education, self-efficacy, pandemic, COVID-19DOI: https://doi.org/10.14574/ojrnhc.v21i2.678

Between Passion and Rejection – Attitudes to Farming among Young University Graduates in Rural Areas of Poland

The aim of the article is to analyse the significance of farming and agriculture in the lives of young rural university graduates in Poland. Their educational and professional choices are discussed. How many of them graduated from agricultural higher education institutions and agricultural disciplines? Do such decisions translate into taking up farming after having completed the studies? What are the reasons that young people with higher education living in rural areas may be or may not be interested in farming? Another objective is to identify the main factors potentially “pulling” them towards agriculture and those “pushing” them out of this sector. The article is based on 92 in-depth interviews with university graduates aged 25–34 and 27 in-depth interviews with competent local informants conducted in ten purposely selected rural municipalities across Poland. The results show that farming and agriculture are more present in young university graduates than their educational and professional choices suggest. However, the interviews reflect the dominance of the modernisation paradigm shaping the perceptions of farmers and agriculture in Poland.

The Role of Rural Graduate Medical Education in Improving Rural Health and Health Care.

The Role of Rural Graduate Medical Education in Improving Rural Health and Health Care.

Experiences of Western Australian rural nursing graduates: A mixed method analysis.

To determine whether the current rural graduate programmes in Western Australia adequately support new graduate nurses transitioning into practice. Graduate nurse's transition to employment is a time of significant change and challenge, often resulting in periods of transition shock. These challenges are magnified in rural areas where graduates have to relocate to commence their career with limited rural nursing experience. Graduate programmes were developed to smooth the transition for university trained bachelor's degree registered nurses into the workforce. Supportive graduate nursing programmes are essential for enabling transition to practice and reduce attrition rates. Longitudinal convergent mixed method parallel design was informed by Duchscher's transition stage model. Thematic analysis was applied to all interviews. COREQ checklist was completed. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyse the survey responses. New graduates cycled through both transition shock and honeymoon periods on commencement of employment, reporting high levels of satisfaction in simultaneity with signs of transition shock. Satisfaction dropped within 7months indicating a transition crisis before an adjustment period occurred at the end of their graduate year. Limited resources were highlighted as obstacles to providing adequate support to rural graduate nurses. The honeymoon stage of transition co-existed with transition shock at the commencement of graduate programmes, which may obscure the need for continuing adequate support. Inadequate and/or a lack of preceptorship was evident throughout the Western Australian rural graduate programmes. Graduate programmes need to be structured but flexible to allow for individual differences in graduates' and clinical contexts. Structured but flexible graduate programmes allow for individual differences in graduates and clinical situations. New graduate nurses would benefit from a break midway through their graduate year to assist and overcome the transition crisis stage. Education of nurses undertaking the preceptor role is required to deliver adequate support to graduate nurses and decrease transition shock.

Graduate rural work outcomes of the first 8years of a medical school: What can we learn about student selection and clinical school training pathways?

To determine the student characteristics and clinical school training pathways that are associated with postgraduate rural practice. A cross-sectional observational study. Deakin University's School of Medicine, encompassing 3 rural and 2 metropolitan clinical schools, including a rural longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) year. A total of 948 School of Medicine medical graduates (2011-2018) who had an Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency registered work location in Australia (September 2019). Graduates' work locations were linked with admission and clinical school training data and analysed for significant associations. Graduates completing a rural LIC year and a regional rural clinical school year were 7 times more likely to be working rurally than metropolitan trainees. A small number of rural background (RB) students completed a rural LIC and rural clinical school year, 66.7% of whom were practising rurally. Further associations with rural practice were attending a rural clinical school for 2years or a rural LIC for 1year, student having a RB, rurally bonded course placement and being an international student. The significant influence of a rural LIC year on graduate rural work location is noteworthy, especially when undertaken by students from a RB in combination with a second regional rural clinical school year. These findings support the strategic alignment of rural student selection with rural clinical school training pathways to achieve the greatest impact on rural graduate workforce outcomes.

СПЕЦИФИКА УРОКА С ПРИМЕНЕНИЕМ ИНТЕГРИРОВАННЫХ ЗАДАЧ СЕЛЬСКОХОЗЯЙСТВЕННОГО ТЕМАТИКИ В МЕТОДИЧЕСКОЙ СИСТЕМЕ УЧИТЕЛЯ

What is the model of a rural school graduate today? What skills of the XXI century should he have? The same as a city graduate or excellent, different? At first glance, the answer is simple: since there is an educational standard (now FGOS-3_2022), the educational results should be similar. But this is the simplest answer and not quite reflecting the objective reality. The village school has its own mission, purpose, creed (symbol of faith), which is characteristic only for it. Rural territory is only a small homeland for rural schoolchildren, and only a rural graduate, as a true citizen and patriot of his homeland, is able, with all the difficulties available today, to return to his native settlement and fulfill his mission to revive rural territory and increase the prestige of life in the countryside. In the current conditions, it is difficult to imagine that graduates of urban schools are capable of such a vital «feat». Therefore, it is especially important to form professional orientations in rural schoolchildren related to future life activities for the benefit of the village. This explains the importance of including an appropriate component in the methodological system of a rural school teacher. But what is the content of this component, how can it be implemented technologically? Тhe purpose of the article is to find answers to these questions, and the content is the result of reflection. Research methods are the study of literature, modeling of the methodical system of a rural school teacher with a career-oriented component, modeling of the means of teaching such a system – integrated tasks of agricultural subjects. The novelty of the article lies in the presentation of a model of the methodical system of a rural school teacher with a career guidance component in the format of integrated tasks of agricultural subjects and the description of the model of the training session as a means of implementing the methodological system. The materials of the article will be useful for teachers of rural schools teaching natural sciences to students.

Investigation and analysis of standardized training for residents of general practitioners of Gansu Province in China

BackgroundChina’s standardized training for residents of General Practitioners (GPs) is aimed at providing the postgraduate training for family doctors who will serve the primary health care institutions. The aim of this paper is to investigate the standardized training situation, satisfaction with standardized training, work situation, intention, satisfaction and attitude of GPs who have finished standardized training.MethodsThis study was undertaken in 6 training hospitals in Gansu province using a questionnaire with 45 questions.ResultsApproximately 275 residents of GPs were enrolled. Finally, 263 residents completed the questionnaire (95.64% response rate), including 133 females (50.57%) and 130 males (49.43%) with an average age of 28 years (standard deviation, 1.93 years; range, 25–36 years). Additionally, 56.65% were single and 43.35% were married. Of all subjects, 92.40% residents had obtained certification of standardized training for residents of GPs and only 39.54% residents were satisfied with monthly income during training. There were 171 oriented rural medical graduates, of whom, only 42.69% expressed the willing to continue working in the primary health care institutions after the serve time (6 years) expired. Around 86.31% of residents of GPs who had finished standardized training got jobs with more than half serving in the primary health care institutions. For medical institutions and sanitary bureau were clear about general medicine policies, only 29.96% subjects registered as GPs. Among the residents in general practice department, 68.42% were engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of common disease and frequently-occurring diseases as well as referral of patients. The percentage of residents who were satisfied with the job and income were 30.40 and 14.98%, respectively.ConclusionStandardized training for residents of GPs in China is gradually improving. In order to cultivate more GPs and increase their willing to serve in the primary health care institutions, it is necessary to formulate and execute better policy of GPs, publize general medicine and improve the training quality.

Dress Like Me: An Exploration of Rural Graduate Social Work Attire

Dress Like Me: An Exploration of Rural Graduate Social Work Attire