This paper aims to provide insights on the association between exposure to rural general practice vocational training placements and subsequent rural practice location in Western Australia. We further explore the possibility that the observed associations might depend on an individual's rural upbringing and or an individual's exposure to general practice during medical school. To this end, a cross-sectional analysis of practice location of 353 general practitioners who completed their vocational training through WA General Practice Education and Training between 2010 and 2017 was conducted. The empirical analysis uses a fully recursive conditional mixed process estimator to jointly estimate the probabilities that a general practitioner (GP) completes their vocational training placement at a rural location and subsequently practices at a rural location. The results show that GPs who chose rural locations for their first and last vocational training placements are more likely to practice at a rural location compared to their counterparts choosing metropolitan locations. Also, the probability of subsequent rural practice is further strengthened by having a rural background and having exposure to general practice during medical school even after controlling for potential confounders. The results also indicate that GPs stay in rural locations for reasons linked to their career, family and lifestyles. This evidence underscores the importance of vocational training organisations in WA and reinforces the need for ongoing rural opportunities in training to ameliorate location-based disparities in the distribution of the GP workforce in Western Australia.

本文旨在提供有关农村普通实践职业培训实习机会与西澳大利亚随后的农村实践地点之间的关联的见解。我们进一步探讨了观察到的关联可能取决于个人的农村教养和/或个人在医学院期间接触一般实践的可能性。为此，对 2010 年至 2017 年间通过西澳全科医生教育和培训完成职业培训的 353 名全科医生的执业地点进行了横断面分析。实证分析使用完全递归的条件混合过程估计器来联合估计全科医生 (GP) 在农村完成职业培训安置并随后在农村实践的概率。结果表明，与选择大城市地点的同行相比，选择农村地区进行第一次和最后一次职业培训实习的全科医生更有可能在农村地区实习。此外，即使在控制了潜在的混杂因素之后，由于具有农村背景并在医学院期间接触过全科实践，后续农村实践的可能性也会进一步增强。结果还表明，全科医生出于与其职业、家庭和生活方式相关的原因而留在农村地区。