Abstract
Background and objectives: Many family medicine educators feel that a required clinical rotation in family medicine has a positive influence on medical students' selection of family medicine residencies. We investigated the effect of a rural family medicine rotation on students' residency choices and examined the differences between a third-year and a fourth-year rotation. Methods: We surveyed 1,260 students before and after they participated in a required rural family medicine rotation. Results: The rotation had a small positive effect on student interest in family medicine. Over 20 years, there was a net gain of 4.7% (93 students) from before to after the rotation. Moving the rural rotation from the MS4 to the MS3 year resulted in a significant decline in the number of students who switched their preferences toward family medicine and ultimately matched to a family medicine residency. Conclusions: When the rotation occurs in the third year, there is more time following the rotation for other influences to exert an impact on a student's specialty choice, resulting in a small "bleed" away from family medicine. It might be useful to develop programs that continue to pique the interest in family medicine during their fourth year.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 556-559 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Family Medicine |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| State | Published - Sep 2011 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Family Practice