Should I apply to medical school? High school students and barriers to application

Introduction: A major goal of the Faculty of Medicine at the Memorial University of Newfoundland is to produce physicians who will return to rural areas that are currently underserviced. Research shows that the strongest indicator of practice in a rural area is a rural background, and thus it is important that rural students apply to medical school. We investigated what high school students believe to be preventing them from pursuing medical education. Methods: Between September 2013 and June 2014, we administered a paper survey to high school students in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Results: A total of 665 participants completed the survey. We found that fewer rural students (75.6%) than urban students (98.6%) believed that they could gain admission to medical school (p < 0.01) and that medicine was promoted as a career choice in fewer rural schools (55.7%) than urban schools (69.7%). Also, 55.4% of urban students, but only 44.4% of rural students, believed that rural students were disadvantaged when applying to medical school. Conclusion: In our study, rural students believed they were less likely to be accepted into medical school than urban students, and fewer rural students felt that medicine was promoted as a potential career choice. Our results may be explained by a lack of role models or perhaps by financial barriers, although further research is needed. Introduction : Un des grands objectifs de la Faculte de medecine de l'Universite Memorial de Terre-Neuve est de former des medecins qui retourneront exercer dans les zones rurales qui sont actuellement mal desservies. Des etudes ont demontre que le facteur le plus fortement associe au choix de la pratique en milieu rural est le fait d'y avoir habite; il est donc important que des jeunes ruraux entrent en faculte de medecine. Nous avons demande a des eleves de niveau secondaire ce qui pourrait les empecher de poursuivre des etudes en medecine. Methodes : Entre septembre 2013 et juin 2014, nous avons invite des eleves de TerreNeuve-et-Labrador, du Nouveau-Brunswick et de l'Ile-du-Prince-Edouard a repondre a un sondage papier. Resultats : Le sondage a ete realise aupres de 665 repondants. Les eleves en milieu rural (75,6%) sont moins nombreux que les eleves en milieu urbain (98,6%) a croire en leurs chances d'etre admis en medecine (p < 0,01). De plus, la promotion de la profession medicale a l'ecole serait moins repandue en milieu rural (55,7%) qu'en milieu urbain (69,7%). Finalement, 55,4% des eleves en milieu urbain et seulement 44,4% des eleves en milieu rural croient que le milieu represente un frein a l'admission en medecine. Conclusion : En resume, les eleves du milieu rural croient que les citadins sont plus susceptibles d'etre admis en medecine, et ils sont moins nombreux a dire que leur ecole les a encourages a faire carriere dans ce domaine. Nos resultats pourraient s'expliquer par un manque de modeles ou des contraintes financieres; il faudra approfondir la recherche a ce sujet.
INTRODUCTION In Newfoundland and Labrador, a very sparsely populated province, there is an increasing demand for physicians of all specialties to return to rural areas and provide medical care. With [...]