title: A comparison of metropolitan and rural medical schools in China: which schools provide rural physicians?
abstract: To compare the role of metropolitan and rural medical schools in the provision of rural physicians, a survey was conducted in 12 metropolitan and 10 rural medical schools. Rural medical schools enrolled fewer students (P = 0.019), and produced fewer graduates (P = 0.023) than metropolitan medical schools. Students in rural medical schools were mainly from surrounding regional cities and counties, whereas those in metropolitan schools were from cities nationwide (P < 0.001). All rural medical schools produced rural physicians; one rural school reported that of its 256 graduates, 88 (34.4%) entered rural practice. Ten of the 12 metropolitan medical schools did not produce any rural physicians, whereas the remaining two metropolitan schools registered a total of 73 graduates who selected a rural practice location. These results indicate that rural medical schools may play a key role in overcoming the shortage of physicians in rural communities in China.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. lwang@csu.edu.au
authors.forename: Lexin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D010820:Physicians / Q000600:supply & distribution; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D012423:Rural Health; D012577:Schools, Medical; D014504:Urban Health