A model for attracting physicians to rural areas by improving residency training program, part 2 / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

A shortage of physicians in rural areas has become a serious problem of the new residency training program in Japan. To address this problem, we propose a model for attracting physicians to rural areas by improving residency training programs and by evaluating a curriculum introduced to Kainan Hospital, a community hospital. In this second paper, we describe the middle-term curriculum evaluation and present our model.1) Interviews of program directors revealed 8 items necessary to improve residency training programs.2) After the residents finish their training, they remain at the same hospital, and the number of the number of physicians at the hospital increases, if the fellowship programs are well-organized.3) Because universities are interested in hospitals at which many residents and fellows work, attracting attending physicians to these hospitals is easier.4) Although attracting enough physicians by improving residency training programs requires 3 to 5 years, achieving this goal by increasing the larger number of medical students would take even longer.