Issues related to medical students' engagement in integrated rural placements: an exploratory factor analysis.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to identify and investigate the factors derived from the rural integrated community clerkship (RICC) questionnaire that influenced the decision of medical students to pursue a 36-week rural community placement option.


METHODS
A total of 162 first-year (n = 92) and second-year (n = 70) medical students completed the 35-item RICC questionnaire. We used qualitative interviews to develop questionnaire items, and we used subsequent descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analyses to analyze the data.


RESULTS
Students with origins in rural communities were not significantly more likely to consider a RICC than their urban counterparts. However, students who identified family medicine as their discipline of choice were 3 times more likely to consider a RICC. Exploratory factor analysis, based on correlation of questionnaire items, determined 7 factors (themes) for the questionnaire. The questionnaire had strong internal reliability (Cronbach a = 0.94).


CONCLUSIONS
Although generally supportive of the rural clerkship option, students are less concerned about the clinical experience than they are about the practical implications of moving to a rural community. The RICC questionnaire was shown to have strong reliability and construct validity in measuring students' perceptions of a long-term clerkship placement in a rural community.
Donnon
Tyrone
T
Medical Education and Research Unit, Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta. tldonnon@ucalgary.ca
Woloschuk
Wayne
W
Myhre
Doug
D
D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D002321:Career Choice; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012424:Rural Population; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires