ArticleBMJ open2024
Evaluating the importance of rural internships to subsequent medical workforce distribution outcomes: an Australian cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Importance of Global Health Opportunities in Residency Selection Among Otolaryngology Applicants.World journal of otorhinolaryngology - head and neck surgery · 2026Article
- Private Hospital Anesthesia Rotation in A Rural Clinical School: A Pilot Study of Medical Students' Perceptions of One-To-One Supervision.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
- Adaptation of the renal clinic extension-mentorship model for chronic kidney disease prevention and control into the primary healthcare system in Nigeria.Journal of public health in Africa · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the importance of rural internships to observed medical workforce distribution outcomes up to 8 years post-medical school. DESIGN AND
settingCohort study of medical graduates of The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.
participantsUQ graduates who were medical interns in Queensland's public health system between 2014 and 2021 and observed working in Australia in 2022. Internship location was defined as being metropolitan or rural, along with other key rural exposures of whether they are of rural origin (childhood) and whether at least 1 year of clinical training at medical school was in a rural location. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Current work location was collected from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in 2022, classified as either rural or metropolitan and measured in association with their internship location.
resultsFrom 1930 eligible graduates, 21.5% took up a rural internship, which was associated with rural origin (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0) and medical school rural immersions of either 1 year (OR 2.8, 95% CI 2.1 to 3.7) or 2 years (OR 5.8, 95% CI 4.4 to 7.7). Completing a rural internship was associated with currently working rural (47% vs 14%, OR 4.6, 95% CI 3.5 to 5.9), which weakened the observed (adjusted) effect of rural origin (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0) or medical school rural immersions (1 year: OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.9; 2 years: OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.3). All combinations of the key rural exposures that included rural internship had the highest proportions currently working rurally (range 32-69%) compared with the combinations with a metropolitan internship (range 12-22%).
conclusionsInternship location appears to be a critical factor in shaping medical workforce distribution decisions. This evidence supports the need for strengthened and expanded rural training pathways after medical school. In particular, clearer pathways into specialty programmes via rural internships are likely to support increased numbers choosing (with confidence) to preference rural internship first and subsequently more working in rural areas long term.
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