Original Research
The Murray–Darling Medical Schools Network Research Collaboration: protocol for a longitudinal, multi-university program of work to explore the effect of rurally based medical school programs in the Murray–Darling region
AUTHORS
Brie Turner1 PhD, Lecturer (Teaching and Research) * 
Shane Bullock2 PhD, Head of School
Sally Butler3 MBiostat, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in Medicine
Linda Ferrington4 PhD, Associate Professor
Michael Macartney5 PhD, Senior Lecturer and Phase 1 Coordinator
Laura Major6 UG Cert Mental Health, Rural Health Education Manager
Lynn Monrouxe7 PhD, Academic Lead of Healthcare Education Research
Uchechukwu Levi Osuagwu8 PhD, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead
Phillipa Southwell9 PhD, Project Officer
Lachlan Van Schaik10 PhD, Lecturer
Georgina M Luscombe11 PhD, Associate Professor
AFFILIATIONS
1, 11 School of Rural Health, The University of Sydney, 1502 Forest Rd, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
2, 6 School of Rural Health, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic. 3168, Australia
3 School of Rural Medicine, Charles Sturt University, Leeds Pde, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
4 School of Clinical Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Port Macquarie, NSW 2444, Australia
5 School of Clinical Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia
7 School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Susan Wakil Health Building, NSW 2006, Australia
8 Bathurst Rural Clinical School, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, PO Box 9008, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia
9 Western NSW Regional Training Hub, The University of Sydney, 1502 Forest Rd, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
10 Department of Rural Health, The University of Melbourne, 49 Graham St, Shepparton, Vic. 3630, Australia
ACCEPTED: 14 November 2023
early abstract:
Introduction: There is now strong evidence to support the positive impact of place-based medical education on the recruitment and retention of the rural health workforce in Australia. Much of this work, however, has been undertaken in the context of ‘extended rural clinical placement’, that is students undertaking part of their medical degree in a rural location. Until recently, there were only a few places in Australia in which students could undertake the entirety of their medical degree in a rural area. With the introduction of the Murray–Darling Medical Schools Network (MDMSN) initiative, this dynamic is changing. The MDMSN is part of the Stronger Rural Health Strategy and builds on the Government’s existing Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program to establish a network of rurally-based medical programs in the Murray–Darling Region. The MDMSN offers a unique opportunity to explore the effect of complete rural immersion during medical school on subsequent rural practice. This paper describes the establishment of a research collaboration intended to ensure the harmonisation of research data collection from the outset of the MDMSN program.
Methods: The MDMSN research collaboration is a longitudinal, multi-university program of work to explore the effect of rurally-based medical school programs in the Murray–Darling region. Initially it has been agreed that administrative student data will be collected from existing university datasets to help characterise this novel student cohort. Each university will then distribute an ‘Entry survey’ to all first-year MDMSN students. The survey will collect demographic information as well as information regarding rural background, preferences, and future practice intention. Questions have been aligned with and adapted from the Medical Schools Outcomes Database survey, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and from the literature. This information will be combined with graduate information from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Results: The MDMSN research collaboration will work toward the co-design of research projects, to facilitate and progress multi-site research addressing nationally relevant research questions. Early research efforts are focused on our ability to better understand the new cohort of students embarking on rurally-based medical education, their practice intentions and realisation. Subsequent work of the collaboration may lead to deeper understanding of the rural student experience, any effect of ‘place’, changes in student professional identity over time, and their relationship to subsequent rural practice.
Conclusion: The MDMSN research collaboration is a proactive initiative that brings together data and experience from five new, rurally-based medical programs and answers calls for multi-institution and longitudinal studies. It is uniquely placed to capture the impact of the MDMSN program including the effect of complete rural immersion on the future practice location of these graduates. Ultimately, the combined research efforts of the MDMSN research collaboration will add knowledge to address the known rural workforce maldistribution, particularly how to attract and retain medical workforce.
Keywords: health workforce, longitudinal study, medical education, medical students, medical graduates, rural, rural pipeline.