Student views of the community served by an inner city medical center

A questionnaire survey was conducted of second-year medical students enrolled at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in order to obtain their views of the community served by the center, which, like many communities in Brooklyn, has undergone transformation from a middle class to an inner city poverty neighborhood over the past decade. The 181 respondents expressed concern about crime, economic decline, pollution, and crowding. Of the 49.4 percent who had already formulated plans for postgraduate training, only 2.5 percent indicated that they would do it in Brooklyn. Only 3.3 percent said they would set up a practice in Brooklyn. Yet a majority gave a high rating to the quality of postgraduate training opportunities in Brooklyn. Thus, the decision to leave Brooklyn for postgraduate training is strongly influenced by student perceptions of life-quality factors.