Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2015 July, 236(3)

Commentary

Enhancing the Motivation for Rural Career: The Collaboration between the Local Government and Medical School

MASARU SEGUCHI,¹ NORIKO FURUTA,¹ SEIJI KOBAYASHI,¹ KAZUHIRO KATO,¹ KOUJI SASAKI,¹ HIROKI HORI² and MASATAKA OKUNO¹

¹Medical Policy Bureau, Department of Health and Welfare, Mie Prefectural Government, Tsu, Mie, Japan
²Center for Medical and Nursing Education, Mie University Faculty of Medicine, Tsu, Mie, Japan

The shortage of medical workforce in rural areas is a global long-standing problem. Due to the severity of shortages in the medical workforce, Mie prefectural government has collaborated with a medical school and the municipal governments to increase the rural medical workforce. Since 2010, this collaboration has led to an annual lecture series on rural practice for medical students. We distributed questionnaires at the beginning and end of the lecture series to examine the effect of this program. The questionnaire consisted of two parts that included an understanding of rural practice and the motivation to work in rural areas. The lecture series significantly improved the responses to the following questions “Rural practice is interesting” (p < 0.001), “Rural practitioners can deliver adequate medical care” (p < 0.01), “Rural practitioners cannot go back to urban areas” (p < 0.001), “I want to be a rural practitioner” (p < 0.001), “Healthcare facilities in rural areas have been developed” (p < 0.001), “Rural practitioners can be a specialist” (p < 0.001), and “Rural residents can be served adequate healthcare service” (p < 0.01). The percentage of students who desired to work in rural areas increased significantly (11.1% vs. 23.9%, p = 0.04). A lecture series on rural practice enhanced the motivation of medical students and their interest in a rural career. While collaboration between the local government and medical school rarely occurs in planning medical education programs, this approach may offer a promising way to foster local health professionals.

keywords —— Keywords: medical education; physician supply; questionnaire; rural career; shortage of medical workforce

© 2015 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2015, 236, 169-174

Correspondence: Masaru Seguchi, M.D., Regional Medicine Development Division, Medical Policy Bureau, Department of Health and Welfare, Mie Prefectural Government, 13 Komei-cho, Tsu, Mie 514-8570, Japan.

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