Tadakamadla Santosh Kumar, Balla Sudheer Babu, Tadakamadla Jyothi, Semmens Libby, Down Sarah, McKinstry Carol, Mills Jane
Dentistry and Oral Health, Department of Rural Clinical Science & Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, VIC, 3550, Australia.
La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, VIC, 3550, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jan 29;25(1):142. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-06681-2.
Most research on tracking practice locations of health students has focused on medical students, particularly the factors influencing their choice to work in rural and remote areas. However, there is limited research on how rural origin and training in regional or rural settings affect the employment destinations of dental and oral health graduates. This paper explores the practice locations of dentistry and oral health therapy (OHT) graduates from rural backgrounds compared to those from metropolitan areas in Australia.
The target population was dental and OHT graduates from La Trobe University's Rural Health School (Australia) who completed their studies between 2009 and 2023. The graduates' primary place of practice was sourced from the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) data. The 2019 Modified Monash Model (MMM) was used to categorise the students' original place of residence by rurality and practice locations. Multivariable analyses were conducted to explore the association between home and practice locations while controlling for the effect of socio-demographic characteristics collected from students at enrolment.
Data were available for 819 graduates matched to the AHPRA register. Of these, 541 (66.1%) were dentists, and 278 (33.9%) were OHTs. The majority were female (56.7% dentists and 81.7% OHTs), 11.3% (dentists) and 21.6% (OHTs) of the graduates originated from rural and remote areas, 16.6% (dentists) and 18% (OHTs) from regional areas, and 72.1% (dentists) and 60.4% (OHTs) from metropolitan areas. Multinomial logistic regression analyses for dentists and OHTs identified that , having a regional background, or having a rural or remote background were the most significant predictors for regional, rural/remote practice over metropolitan areas.
Regional background is the strongest predictor for graduate dentists and OHTs practicing in Australia's regional or rural and remote locations. Similarly, students from rural and remote locations were highly likely to practice in rural/ remote locations. Increasing the recruitment of students with rural backgrounds may positively impact graduates' decisions to practice in rural areas.
大多数关于医学生实习地点追踪的研究都集中在医学专业学生身上，尤其是影响他们选择在农村和偏远地区工作的因素。然而，关于农村出身以及在地区或农村环境中的培训如何影响牙科和口腔健康专业毕业生的就业去向，相关研究较少。本文探讨了澳大利亚农村背景的牙科和口腔健康治疗（OHT）专业毕业生与大城市地区毕业生的实习地点情况。
目标人群是拉筹伯大学农村卫生学院（澳大利亚）2009年至2023年期间毕业的牙科和OHT专业学生。毕业生的主要实习地点来自澳大利亚卫生从业人员监管局（AHPRA）的数据。2019年修正的莫纳什模型（MMM）用于按农村和城市地区对学生的原籍地进行分类。在控制入学时从学生那里收集的社会人口特征影响的同时，进行多变量分析以探索家乡与实习地点之间的关联。
有819名毕业生的数据与AHPRA登记册匹配。其中，541名（66.1%）是牙医，278名（33.9%）是OHT专业人员。大多数是女性（牙医占56.7%，OHT专业人员占81.7%），11.3%（牙医）和21.6%（OHT专业人员）的毕业生来自农村和偏远地区，16.6%（牙医）和18%（OHT专业人员）来自地区，72.1%（牙医）和60.4%（OHT专业人员）来自大城市地区。对牙医和OHT专业人员的多项逻辑回归分析表明，拥有地区背景、农村或偏远背景是在地区、农村/偏远地区而非大城市地区实习的最重要预测因素。
地区背景是澳大利亚地区或农村及偏远地区实习的牙科毕业生和OHT专业人员的最强预测因素。同样，来自农村和偏远地区的学生很可能在农村/偏远地区实习。增加农村背景学生的招生人数可能会对毕业生在农村地区实习的决定产生积极影响。
