Growing a rural family physician workforce: The contributions of rural background and rural place of residency training

Objective: To determine the distinct influences of rural background and rural residency training on rural practice choice among family physicians.

Data sources and study setting: We used a subset of The RTT Collaborative rural residency list and longitudinal data on family physicians from the American Board of Family Medicine National Graduate Survey (NGS; three cohorts, 2016-2018) and American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS).

Study design: We conducted a logistic regression, computing predictive marginals to assess associations of background and residency location with physician practice location 3 years post-residency.

Data collection/extraction methods: We merged NGS data with residency type-rural or urban-and practice location with AMCAS data on rural background.

Principal findings: Family physicians from a rural background were more likely to choose rural practice (39.2%, 95% CI = 35.8, 42.5) than those from an urban background (13.8%, 95% CI = 12.5, 15.0); 50.9% (95% CI = 43.0, 58.8) of trainees in rural residencies chose rural practice, compared with 18.0% (95% CI = 16.8, 19.2) of urban trainees.

Conclusions: Increasing rural programs for training residents from both rural and urban backgrounds, as well as recruiting more rural students to medical education, could increase the number of rural family physicians.