Attracting Doctors to Rural Areas 1997

Data from Survey of Serving Doctors

The mail-out survey of serving doctors was designed to complement the survey of graduating medical students. Contract doctors (recent graduates performing compulsory service) were surveyed at health centers nationwide, excluding urban areas, and very remote areas. The purpose of the mail-out survey was to determine the conditions under which serving doctors would be willing to extend their contracts. At the time of the survey, such extensions were not allowed. It was hypothesized that - at least for a subset of doctors - modest additional incentives might elicit a substantial increase in willingness to extend. The preferences of pre-service medical students are based on very fragmentary information, and these preferences may well change as a result of field experience.

Question 7a (University), b6 (Spouse's birthplace) were dropped for confidentiality.

Data from Survey of Medical Students

Final year medical students were surveyed at fourteen medical schools. The purpose of the survey was to assess students' preferences over hypothetical assignments differing in locational amenities, compensation packages, and career paths.