Medical students' perceptions of rural clinical placement: a mixed-methods study

A severe shortage and inequitable distribution of doctors between rural and urban populations leave the rural population in Papua New Guinea deprived of medical care. Our medical school adopted strategies proven in other countries to motivate medical students to undertake rural practice effectively. This study aims to explore medical students' perceptions of rural clinical placement in Papua New Guinea.

We adopted a mixed-methods parallel design. We included 41 students who undertook the rural clinical placement. For the data collection instruments, we employed the semi-structured questionnaire for the quantitative strand and focus group discussion for the qualitative strand.

Most students reported positive experiences of rural placement evaluating highly rural supervisors. Among the benefits of rural placement are enhanced confidence and competence level in clinical skills, an opportunity to practise several procedures, hands-on diagnosing and managing patients, a wide variety of cases and taking more responsibility for patients' care. For the students with rural upbringings, rural placement influenced them to consider future work in rural areas. For the urban students, it increased their understanding of health issues in the rural population.

This study enhances our understanding of factors affecting medical students' opinions on rural clinical placement and how this experience will likely influence their future career choices. Further study is required to assess the association between rural placement and choosing a rural career path.