Nature of Association Between Rural Background and Practice Location

An article has recently been published in the journal BMC Health Services Research titled "Nature of association between rural background and practice location: a comparison of general practitioners and specialists". This paper aims to investigate in detail the nature of the association between rural background and practice location of Australian general practitioners (GPs) and specialists. It elucidates the association between rural background and rural practice for both GPs and specialists. It follows that increased take-up of rural practice by new graduates requires an increased selection of students with strong rural backgrounds. However, given the considerable under-representation of rural background students in medical schools and the reluctance of females to practise in rural areas, the selection of rural background students is only part of the solution to increasing the supply of rural doctors.