Document Detail


Medical schools in rural areas--necessity or aberration?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19653801     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
INTRODUCTION: There is major maldistribution of physicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While 70% of Congolese live in rural areas, relatively few doctors practice there. Of the 25 medical schools in the DRC (14 public and 11 private) only one private medical school is located in a rural area. The purpose of this article was to analyse and compare the graduates of an urban- and a rural-located university in DRC. METHODS: The 6 first classes of the Catholic University of Graben (UCG) Medical School at Butembo (rural) and Université Evangélique en Afrique (UEA) at Bukavu (urban) (43 and 120 graduates, respectively) were compared according to their rural or urban employment, among other variables. RESULTS: In total, 97.7% of graduates from the rural-located medical school were employed in the province where they trained, the majority (81.4%) in rural areas. In contrast, 40.0% of graduates from the urban-located school were employed in the province where they trained, with 23.7% working in a rural area. Over 55% of all graduates worked 78 km of their training medical school. Only 2.5% of the rural-school graduates entered residency programs, compared with 15.2% for urban-school graduates. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the policy of establishing medical schools in rural areas, and also provide indications of approaches likely to increase the number and expertise of rural-located physicians.
Authors:
Ahuka O Longombe
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't     Date:  2009-07-21
Journal Detail:
Title:  Rural and remote health     Volume:  9     ISSN:  1445-6354     ISO Abbreviation:  Rural Remote Health     Publication Date:    2009 Jul-Sep
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-08-05     Completed Date:  2009-10-02     Revised Date:  2009-12-13    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101174860     Medline TA:  Rural Remote Health     Country:  Australia    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1131     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
University of Kisangani and Université Catholique de Graben (UCG) Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. alongombe@yahoo.fr
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Career Choice
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Education, Medical / manpower*
Female
Health Manpower
Humans
Male
Medically Underserved Area
Physicians / supply & distribution
Professional Practice Location / statistics & numerical data*
Rural Health Services / manpower*
Rural Population / statistics & numerical data*
Schools, Medical / statistics & numerical data*
Specialization
Young Adult
Comments/Corrections
Comment In:
Fam Med. 2009 Nov-Dec;41(10):744   [PMID:  19882401 ]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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