Student attitudes to surgical teaching in provincial hospitals.

OBJECTIVE

The ever-increasing pressure on metropolitan teaching hospitals to rationalise budgets and increase productivity has resulted in a dwindling amount of teaching opportunity for the medical student population. One solution to the problem was to utilise a largely untapped resource in South Australia, namely the provincial hospitals, however, student opinion regarding such a radical change had yet to be determined.

DESIGN

A questionnaire was circulated among an entire year group of medical students who would be undertaking the revised surgical curriculum with rural attachments.

SETTING

In October 1997, a decision was made by the Department of Surgery at the University of Adelaide to proceed with optional rural surgical attachments in 1998.

SUBJECTS

The survey was distributed to the 125 members of the 1997 fifth year medical student group.

RESULTS

A total of 92 questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 75%. Thirty-nine students ranked a rural term in their top half of preferences, while a further 18 indicated that they would go to a rural centre if they had to.

CONCLUSION

Despite having little warning of the impending changes to their surgical curriculum, the majority of students who responded to the questionnaire stated that they would be willing to venture to the country locations. Before planning significant changes to an established curriculum, the student group should be consulted to gauge their opinion.