Rural longitudinal integrated clerkships: lessons from two programs on different continents

Abstract

The rural longitudinal integrated clerkship approach to teaching the core clinical components of the undergraduate medical curriculum has a positive impact on both students and clinicians, as demonstrated in two different sites on two continents. Five key factors emerged that may inform development of similar programs in other institutions: (1) invest in careful site selection matching local epidemiology with curricular goals; (2) create collegiate faculty development that facilitates peer to peer relationships between rural and urban faculty; (3) integrate IT systems with the health system to create hardware synergies; (4) manage student expectations regarding isolation and expected site differences; and (5) build strong local postgraduate training that reinforces the values and workforce benefits of the undergraduate program.