Going rural – protracted immersion or toe-wetting: Does it matter?

Abstract

Universal access to healthcare mandates that all people worldwide have
access to comprehensive healthcare services, without suffering financial
hardship. However, unless the severe shortages and inequitable distribution
of healthcare workers, especially in many low- and middle-income countries,
are addressed, universal access will, similar to ‘Health for all by the year
2000’, go down in history as a desirable but unattainable goal. The dearth of
healthcare workers follows an ‘inverse care law’, with the direst shortages in
areas of greatest need, mostly rural areas. In a bid to address the challenge in
sub-Saharan Africa, many new medical schools with larger class sizes have sprung
up in the past 20 - 30 years.