Positive placement experience and future rural practice intentions: findings from a repeated cross-sectional study

Objective: To identify the constituents of positive placement experience and explore the association between positive placement experiences and rural and remote practice intentions. Methods: A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2014 and December 2017. Medical, nursing, dentistry, and allied health students who completed a rural/remote placement were invited to complete a survey questionnaire on placement experience. Information on students’ sociodemographic factors, discipline, placement experience, placement satisfaction, and rural/remote practice intentions was collected. Modified Poisson regression was performed to determine the relationships between placement satisfaction and future rural practice intentions. Qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis. Results: A total of 873 students responded. The majority of the survey respondents were females (70.06%), with a median age of 22 years (IQR 21–25 years), and 44.46% of respondents were medical students. Students satisfied with their placement were 2.10 times more likely to have rural/remote practice intention than their counterparts. Of all components of rural/remote placement experience, satisfaction with the placement supervision had the highest impact on changing students’ rural/remote practice intentions from negative to positive. The major themes from qualitative analysis were as follows: “wide variety of experience and hands-on learning opportunities,” “multidisciplinary exposure at home and workplace,” “support from the local University Department of Rural Health (UDRH),” “learning of indigenous culture,” and “expe-riencing challenges of rural health care services.” Conclusion: There is a strong association between positive placement experience and future rural/remote practice intentions. Therefore, facilitation of positive placement experiences in remote and rural locations could be a key strategy in addressing rural health workforce maldistribution