Rural Medical Education in New Zealand

Mayer, Heidi; Renouf, Tia

doi:10.7759/cureus.826

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The report also advocated for recruiting students from rural areas, as they are more likely to return to work in rural areas 13 14. Consequently, policies to increase the proportion of students from regional and rural backgrounds have been in effect at both the Universities of Otago and Auckland since 2003/2004 15 16. In 2012 the University of Auckland modified the criteria to a regional-rural admission scheme reflecting the need to also increase the regional workforce 15 17…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-demographic profile of medical students in Aotearoa, New Zealand (2016–2020): a nationwide cross-sectional study

Bagg,

Curtis,

Eggleton

et al. 2023

BMJ Open

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ObjectiveTo determine the socio-demographic profile of all students enrolled to study medicine in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).Design and settingObservational, cross-sectional study. Data were sought from the Universities of Auckland and Otago, the two NZ tertiary education institutions providing medical education, for the period 2016–2020 inclusive. These data are a subset of the larger project ‘Mirror on Society’ examining all regulated health professional enrolled students in NZ. Variables of interest: gender, citizenship, ethnicity, rural classification, socioeconomic deprivation, school type and school socioeconomic scores. NZ denominator population data (18–29 years) were sourced from the 2018 census.Participants2858 students were enrolled to study medicine between 2016 and 2020 inclusive.ResultsThere were more women (59.1%) enrolled to study medicine than men (40.9%) and the majority (96.5%) were in the 18–29 years age range. Māori students (rate ratio 0.92; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.0) and Pacific students (rate ratio 0.85; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.98) had lower overall rates of enrolment. For all ethnic groups, irrespective of rural or urban origin, enrolment rates had a nearly log-linear negative relationship with increasing socioeconomic deprivation. Enrolments were lower for students from rural areas compared with those from urban areas (rate ratio 0.53; 95% CI 0.46–0.61). Overall NZ’s medical students do not reflect the diverse communities they will serve, with under-representation of Māori and Pacific students and students who come from low socioeconomic and rural backgrounds.ConclusionsTo meaningfully address these issues, we suggest the following policy changes: universities commit and act to Indigenise institutional ways of knowing and being; selection policies are reviewed to ensure that communities in greatest need of doctors are prioritised for enrolment into medicine (specifically, the impact of low socioeconomic status should be factored into selection decisions); and the government fund more New Zealanders to study medicine.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%