Academic performance of third-year medical students learning in rural settings

Investigate the academic performance of medical students in rural and remote discipline rotations by rurality of placement.A retrospective cohort study.Rural and remote clinical placement locations in Queensland, Australia.University of Queensland third-year medical students.In this study, student results for a range of assessments are the main outcome measures with rural area of student placement locations as categorised by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Areas system the independent variable of interest.There was a significant effect of Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Areas of placement on the health project, clinical case presentation, clinical participation assessment and overall grade, after controlling for the potential confounding impact of sex, age, students who attended the rural clinical school, cohort year, rotation during the year and type of health service where students were placed. No significant effect of rural placement level was identified for the written examination, poster or journal of achievement assessments.Medical students' academic achievement is associated with many factors, but this study shows that being placed in remote areas is one factor that either does not impede or can positively influence the learning and academic performance of medical students

WONCA Rural Medical Education Guidebook

We are very excited to launch the WONCA Rural Medical Education Guidebook at the 12th WONCA World Rural Health Conference, Gramado, Brazil. The roots for the Guidebook go back to 1992 when a very important meeting was held on the sidelines of the WONCA Global Family Doctor conference in Vancouver, Canada. At this meeting an interested group of rural practitioners saw the need for WONCA to develop a specific focus on rural doctors. As a result, the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice (WWPRP) was formed. The group set about producing a visionary roadmap for rural medical education in the form of a seminal document, the WONCA policy on Training for Rural Practice 1995. This was followed four years later by further recommendations made in a companion document, the WONCA policy on Rural Health and Rural Practice 1999, which was revised in 2001

Supporting rural procedural practice

Rural people need services as close to their community as possible. Many have argued, especially in developed countries, that centralised services and transport are an alternative. This is doable and necessary with advanced specialised surgery but for more common conditions of less complexity and higher frequency, the need for local delivery of services increases. In striving for elusive perfection, all service can be lost from all but ‘centres of excellence’. When a mother is about to deliver a baby in a rural area, the presence of an obstetric service 300km away is not much comfort. What is required is a local well-trained generalist service. A number of studies have shown the efficacy of rural procedural practice. Many factors influence the availability of rural procedural services, however, including infrastructure; workforce; funding; and skills (training and maintenance). This chapter will touch on skills maintenance and the funding aspects of this

The Limerick Declaration on Rural Health Care 2022

The 19th World Rural Health Conference, hosted in rural Ireland and the University of Limerick, with over 650 participants coming from 40 countries and an additional 1600 engaging online, has carefully considered how best rural communities can be empowered to improve their own health and the health of those around them. The conference also considered the role of national health systems and all stakeholders, in keeping with the commitments made through the Sustainable Development Goals and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health as one of the fundamental rights of every human being. This conference declaration, the Limerick Declaration on Rural Healthcare, is designed to inform rural communities, academics and policymakers about how to achieve the goal of delivering high quality health care in rural and remote areas most effectively, with a particular focus on the Irish healthcare system. Congruent with current evidence and best international practice, the participants of the conference endorsed a series of recommendations for the creation of high quality, sustainable and cost-effective healthcare delivery for rural communities in Ireland and globally. The recommendations focused on four major themes: rural healthcare needs and delivery, rural workforce, advocacy and policy, and research for rural health care. Equal access to health care is a crucial marker of democracy. Hence, we call on all governments, policymakers, academic institutions and communities globally to commit to providing their rural dwellers with equitable access to health care that is properly resourced and fundamentally patient-centred in its design