Teaching Medical Students in Rural Practise The Spanish Situation Wonca Europe Florence 2006 Euripa - Semfyc Jaume Banqué Vidiella jbanquev@meditex.es

Methods: e-mail research Information and e-mails were obtained from the website of Spanish Department of Education. There are 29 Universities - Schools of Medicine in Spain. Three e-mail were sent to the Deans of the Faculties ( two of them as reminders). Questionnaire with 5 items: yes or not.

Questionnaire Your students. Do or can they do any period of rural training ? Have you got any project of rural training for the next two years? Are you interested in any collaboration with experts about rural health to get this period? Your students. Do they have any support for any kind of rural training ? Anything to add ?

Proportion of answers n = 9 / 29 (31,03%)

Conclusions (n:9) None of them do a period of rural training. 2/9 have a project for the next two years. 2/9 are interested in some kind of expert collaboration. 2/9 give support to the students for a rural training period as a option. 5/9 added comments to the questionnarie.

Comments Recently, we started to work in a rural project for the students. I´m interested in the survey conclusions. It´s very interesting to offer this kind of teaching for the students as a option. We offer rural practise in summer as free accreditation in certain rural centers. Students can choose this possibility. We think it´s difficult to organise a rural period of learning for our students.

More comments We offer a period of primary care practises for our students. (It’s not clear if they offer rural or urban period). We show rural care different from urban care. We remark the differences within different countries, economies... too. They are interested in relationship or stages of its students with experts and institutions.

Spanish highlights 30.000 doctors work in primary care. 19.000 of them work as rural doctors. 42% of the doctor’s employment in the Spanish Health System is as a Family Doctor. Family Physician was born in Spain as a medical speciality in 1978. Period of training: 3 years. A new program of Family Physician Learning started in 2005. It has changed the period of training to 4 years. It’s compulsory a rural period of practise for three months. It’s advisable into the second year of learning.

Family Physician presence in Spanish Universities In Spain, there are 29 Universities with their own School of Medicine. None of them have a Family Physician Department. Certain Universities have reached an agreement with health centers to increase their presence in Primary Care. Family doctors work in collaboration with them.

“The extension of the learning period in Family Medicine in Spain will only be sufficient if it goes with the presence of Family Medicine Departments in Spanish Universities”. Veronica Casado - Chairwoman Spanish Family Physician Commission 2006