The SOMERS Index: A simple instrument designed to predict the likelihood of rural career choice

Australian Journal of Rural Health

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 75-80

  Somers, George T ^a   Jolly, Brian ^b   Strasser, Roger P ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT   (Australia)

^b MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c NORTHERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (Canada)

Author keywords

Medical education; Program evaluation; Psychometrics; Recruitment and retention; Rural health services delivery

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; COHORT ANALYSIS; CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY; DECISION MAKING; FEMALE; HEALTH CARE PLANNING; HUMAN; MALE; MEDICAL EDUCATION; MEDICAL STUDENT; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; QUESTIONNAIRE; RURAL POPULATION; STATISTICAL MODEL;

CAREER CHOICE; COHORT STUDIES; CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES; EDUCATION, MEDICAL, UNDERGRADUATE; FEMALE; HUMANS; LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS; MALE; MEDICALLY UNDERSERVED AREA; QUESTIONNAIRES; RURAL POPULATION; STUDENTS, MEDICAL;

EID: 79953043223     PISSN: 10385282     EISSN: 14401584     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2011.01187.x     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. Starfield B. Toward international primary care reform. CMAJ Canadian Medical Association Journal 2009; 180: 1091-1092.
2. World Health Organization. Increasing Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas through Improved Retention: Global Policy Recommendations. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2010.
3. Wilson NW, Couper ID, De Vries E, Reid S, Fish T, Marais BJ. A critical review of interventions to redress the inequitable distribution of healthcare professionals to rural and remote areas. Rural & Remote Health 2009; 9: 1060.
4. Australian Health Ministers' Conference. Healthy Horizons. 2003-2007: a framework for improving the health of rural regional and remote Australians. National Rural Health Policy Forum. Vol. vii. Canberra: National Rural Health Alliance, 2003; 54.
5. Rourke J. How can medical schools contribute to the education, recruitment and retention of rural physicians in their region? Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2010; 88: 395-396.
6. Macdowell M, Glasser M, Fitts M, Nielsen K, Hunsaker M. A national view of rural health workforce issues in the USA. Rural & Remote Health 2010; 10: 1531.
7. Goldacre MJ, Laxton L, Lambert TW. Medical graduates' early career choices of specialty and their eventual specialty destinations: UK prospective cohort studies. BMJ 2010; 340: c3199; doi: 10.1136/bmj.c3199.
8. Rabinowitz HK, Diamond JJ, Veloski JJ, Gayle JA. The impact of multiple predictors on generalist physicians' care of underserved populations. American Journal of Public Health 2000; 90: 1225-1228.
9. Somers GT, Young AE, Strasser R. Rural career choice issues as reported by first year medical students and rural general practitioners. Australian Journal of Rural Health 2001; 9 (Suppl 1): S6-S13.
10. Strasser R, Hays R, Kamien M, Carson D. National Rural General Practice Study for Rural Health: Moe: Monash University Centre, 1997.
11. Shadish WR, Cook TD, Campbell DT. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
12. DeVellis RF. Scale Development: Theory and Applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1991.
13. Somers GT. An approach to the understanding and measurement of medical students' attitudes toward a rural career. PhD Thesis, School of Rural Health, Monash University, Clayton, 2004; 401.
14. Somers GT. The medical student's intention to practice in rural Australia: a questionnaire to investigate the factors influencing the intention of the Australian medical student to choose a rural career. Unpublished, Health Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, 1999.
15. Somers GT, Strasser R, Jolly B. What does it take? The influence of rural upbringing and sense of rural background on medical students' intention to work in a rural environment. Rural & Remote Health 2007; 7: 706.
16. Ajzen I. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes 1991; 50: 179-211.
17. Triandis HC. Attitude and Attitude Change. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1971.
18. Pathman DE, Konrad TR, Agnew CR. Predictive accuracy of rural physicians' stated retention plans. Journal of Rural Health 2003; 19: 236-244.
19. Somers GT, Young AE, Strasser R. The medical student's intention to practice in rural Australia: a questionnaire. 6th National Rural Health Conference: Abstracts Handbook. Canberra: National Rural Health Alliance, 2001; 135.
20. Webster RS. Changing pre-service teachers' purposes of education through existential crises. Australian Journal of Education 2004; 48: 82-94.
21. Goldacre MJ, Davidson JM, Lambert TW. Career choices at the end of the pre-registration year of doctors who qualified in the united kingdom in 1996. [comment]. Medical Education 1999; 33: 882-889.
22. Rabinowitz HK, Diamond JJ, Hojat M, Hazelwood CE. Demographic, educational and economic factors related to recruitment and retention of physicians in rural Pennsylvania. Journal of Rural Health 1999; 15: 212-218.
23. Rolfe IE, Pearson SA, O'Connell DL, Dickinson JA. Finding solutions to the rural doctor shortage: the roles of selection versus undergraduate medical education at Newcastle. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Medicine 1995; 25: 512-517.
24. Stagg P, Greenhill J, Worley PS. A new model to understand the career choice and practice location decisions of medical graduates. Rural and Remote Health 2009; 9. [Cited 3 Jun 2010]. Available from URL:
25. Bandura A. Self-Efficacy: the Exercise of Control. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1997.
26. Ajzen I. Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2002; 32: 665-683.
27. Brown I, Inouye DK. Learned helplessness through modeling: the role of perceived similarity in competence. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 1978; 36: 900-908.
28. Laven G, Wilkinson D. Rural doctors and rural backgrounds: how strong is the evidence? A systematic review. Australian Journal of Rural Health 2003; 11: 277-284.
29. Cronbach LJ. Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 1951; 16: 297-334.