The personalities of most medical students are suited to rural practice: Implications for rural education program recruitment

Abstract

Introduction: The success of rural longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) programs has contributed to our understanding of selecting and training students for rural practice. Studies have explored the personality traits of students who participate in rural LICs although few have compared them with classmates who have not. The purpose is to compare personalities of four successive cohorts of students in the LIC Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) with their non-RPAP classmates.

Methods: In a longitudinal cross-sectional design, medical students RPAP and non-RPAP, from 2013 to 2017 completed identical questionnaires comprising measures of personality, perfectionism, ambiguity tolerance, and resilience. T-tests, ANOVA, and post-hoc tests compared groups. K-means cluster analysis identified profiles of traits.

Results: Total sample 286; RPAP = 128; non-RPAP = 158. Gender and age proportions were not different between groups. RPAP students were significantly lower in levels of perfectionism and higher in cooperativeness compared to non-RPAP classmates. Similar proportions of both groups were distributed across three personality profiles detected.

Conclusions: Lower perfectionism implies advantages for rural practice. Nevertheless, similarities between groups suggest that most students would be successful in rural practice. More encouragement to all students may improve uptake of rural LICs. Greater attention to issues that affect decisions to explore rural medical education, particularly for our next generation of students, is required.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the University of Minnesota RPAP staff and Mr Peter Cao for their assistance with this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diann S. Eley

Diann S Eley, MSc, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of MD Research in the Office of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland.

C. Robert Cloninger

C. Robert Cloninger, MD, PhD, is the Wallace Renard Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Center for Psychobiology of Personality, Washington University in St Louis, School of Medicine.

David V. Power

David V. Power, MBBS MPH is Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Medical Student Education, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School.

Kathleen Dwyer Brooks

Kathleen Dwyer Brooks, MD, MBA, MPA is Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School and former Director of RPAP.