Distributed Training and Rural Health Professions Education

Distributed health professions education, also referred to as decentralized training in the medical education literature, is rapidly being adopted by academic institutions where clinical training occurs at sites outside of the tertiary academic hospitals. Often, distributed education enhances exposure to social determinants of health, accommodates an increasing number of students, encourages the social accountability of students, and provides opportunity for work integrated learning and service-learning opportunities. Socially accountable distributed learning often involves community engagement based on interdependent partnerships between communities, academic institutions, health service delivery organizations, and health professionals. There is evidence to support the value of distributed training as it relates to improved service delivery and patient satisfaction at the training sites, increased interest and opportunity for professional development of clinical teachers involved in students training, and improved opportunities for interprofessional education.

Distributed education includes rural health professions education and should be considered as such for the remainder of this call. Distributed training also includes the majority of longitudinal integrated clerkships which are growing in health professions education globally. Education and training of healthcare professionals involving place-based distributed training poses particular challenges due to distance from the urban academic institutions, limited local human resources, and variable information technology availability. These challenges can include access to training materials and lectures, limitations to clinical supervision, and challenges with social integration of students in the environment. But there are also benefits to training healthcare professionals on the distributed training platform especially for extended periods of time, which include students understanding of, integration into, and contribution to the health care system. Students often report feeling part of the health care team and report a greater sense of responsibility in the management of their patients. Health professions education should be adapted for application on the distributed training platform as proposed by available literature, however, each context is unique and presents various opportunities and challenges. Insight into distributed training innovations adopted by institutions can influence the way distributed training is initiated, customized, and implemented across the globe.

This collection will consider all aspects of distributed training and the education of health professionals in order to increase understanding of both the challenges and the benefits to this model of training. We aim to encourage discussion around new approaches or adaptations to under and post graduate distributed education from low-, middle- and high-income countries globally. Specific areas of interest include but are not limited to:

• Opportunities and challenges of distributed training;
• Practical considerations for the implementation of distributed training, including case studies;
• Benefits and challenges specific to the training of students, professional development and satisfaction of rural healthcare professionals;
• Innovative approaches to health professions education specific to distributed training in a variety of contexts;
• Approaches to improving the education or professional development of rural healthcare professionals;
• Innovations in interprofessional education and collaborative practice on the distributed training platform;
• Community engagement that supports co-creation, co-development, co-delivery and co-evaluation of distributed education;
• Place-based research involving health professionals, learners, health service delivery organizations and communities.

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Topic Editor Julia Blitz is a part-time employee of iheed Training Limited. All other Topic Editors declare no conflicts of interest.