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The Relationship Between Entering Medical Students_ Backgrounds and Career Plans and Their Rural Practice Outcomes Three Decades Later.

The Relationship Between Entering Medical Students_ Backgrounds and Career Plans and Their Rural Practice Outcomes Three Decades Later.

  • April 10, 2012
  • Rabinowitz, Howard K. Diamond, James J.; Markham, Fred W. Santana, Abbie
  • Article

This study explored how characteristics known at medical school entry—growing up in a rural area, planning to practice rurally, and intending to enter family medicine—predict rural practice decades later. Among 762 Jefferson Medical College graduates with complete data, 23% were practicing in rural areas by 2007. The likelihood of rural practice increased with the number of predictors: 45% of those with all three worked rurally, compared to just 12% with none. These findings underscore the critical role of medical school admissions in shaping the rural physician workforce.

  • Source: Academic Medicine

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