ArticleBMC medical education2025
What changes does rural medical education need?--a qualitative study exploring the experiences of rural grassroots doctors.
Article in BMC medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Assessing inhabitants' satisfaction and service needs: a cross-sectional survey of primary care service in Jiangsu Province, China.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Scaling distributed training in rural primary care: a Philippine model for LMIC health systems.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe Targeted Medical Education Program (TMEP) in China is designed to improve the primary healthcare quality in rural areas. However, the expected outcomes have not been achieved since its implementation. In this study, rural grassroots doctors were invited to reflect on their experiences and express their views on medical education.
methodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with 21 doctors from township hospitals in Jiangsu Province, including graduates of the TMEP. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the interview data.
resultsRural grassroots doctors had different perceptions of basic medical knowledge. Some thought it had limited utility, while others emphasized its importance. Clinical training often failed to align with real-world grassroots practice, rendering much of the content impractical. Continuing education faced skepticism regarding its relevance, leading to low participation rates in certain regions. Despite recognizing humanistic care and patient communication as core values, young doctors exhibited inadequate work engagement. This reflects a critical gap in professionalism. Attitudes toward grassroots work varied significantly among rural doctors, ranging from reluctant acceptance to strong commitment.
conclusionsThe TMEP should strengthen the integration of theory and practice in curricula, optimize the top-level design of clinical training to meet the actual needs of grassroots work, increase medical humanities education, and enable students to be exposed to rural medical practices at an early stage. For township hospitals, differential continuing education programs should be implemented.
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