An 8 Week Rural Surgical Clerkship: Does It Help to Produce more Rural Physicians?

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to determine what effect an 8-week rural surgical clerkship rotation during the 3rdyear of medical school has on future practice site location. Methods: We report the subsequent practice site for ninety-five 3rd year medical students who completed an 8-week rural surgical clerkship from 2013-2016 compared to a cohort from the same time who completed this clerkship on the urban campus, matched by year and specialty chosen. Findings: On first analysis, there is a significant correlation (p=.0026) between rural clerkship and subsequent rural practice. With secondary analysis, all but one of the students in the rural clerkship group who chose rural practice were rural track students completing most of both clinical years in the rural setting. Conclusions: As found previously, longer duration rural exposures are associated with more frequent subsequent rural practice, but we found no such association for the 8-week rural surgical clerkship. The previous report of positive attitude changes among urban-based medical students completing this rural clerkship may help them understand rural patients seeking their care in an urban setting, but such attitude changes are not adequate to affect the complex decision of practice choice. Future studies of rural exposures during medical school should focus on intermediate duration exposures as well as different specialty clerkships beyond surgery and seek an association with subsequent practice site location.