Beyond bricks and mortar: a rural network approach to preclinical medical education

BMC Medical Education

Wayne Woloschuk¹  Ron Spice³  Nathan Turley²  Paul Adamiak⁵  Douglas L Myhre⁴ 

[1] Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;Department of Family Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;Division of Palliative Medicine, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;Department of Family Medicine, University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine in Calgary, HMRB G17, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 4 N1, Canada

关键词: Social learning;    Academic equivalence;    Rural medical education;    Distributed medical education;    Pre-clinical medical education;   

Others  :  1091984
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-14-166

 received in 2014-03-04, accepted in 2014-08-05,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Countries with expansive rural regions often experience an unequal distribution of physicians between rural and urban communities. A growing body of evidence suggests that the exposure to positive rural learning experiences has an influence on a physician’s choice of practice location. Capitalizing on this observation, many medical schools have developed approaches that integrate rural exposure into their curricula during clerkship. It is postulated that a preclinical rural exposure may also be effective. However, to proceed further in development, accreditation requirements must be considered. In this investigation, academic equivalence between a preclinical rural community based teaching method and the established education model was assessed.

Method

Two separate preclinical courses from the University of Calgary’s three year Undergraduate Medical program were taught at two different rural sites in 2010 (11 students) and 2012 (12 students). The same academic content was delivered in the pilot sites as in the main teaching centre. To ensure consistency of teaching skills, faculty development was provided at each pilot site. Academic equivalence between the rural based learners and a matched cohort at the main University of Calgary site was determined using course examination scores, and the quality of the experience was evaluated through learner feedback.

Results

In both pilot courses there was no significant difference between examination scores of the rural distributed learners and the learners at the main University of Calgary site (p > 0.05). Feedback from the participating students demonstrated that the preceptors were very positively rated and, relative to the main site, the small group learning environment appeared to provide strengthened social support.

Conclusion

These results suggest that community distributed education in pre-clerkship may offer academically equivalent training to existing traditional medical school curricula while also providing learners with positive rural social learning environments. The approach described may offer the potential to increase exposure to rural practice without the cost of constructing additional physical learning sites.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Myhre et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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