Primary care in rural areas: a qualitative study on medical students' images and experiences of working in rural areas in southern Germany.

Background: Rural areas are increasingly moving back into the focus of social research, especially in the context of health care. As the shortage of general practitioners (GP) in rural areas is a significant challenge in Germany, there are several programs to counteract underuse effectively, acutely, and sustainably. One of those programs is 'Beste Landpartie Allgemeinmedizin' (BeLA), which was developed to strengthen primary care in rural areas and to sustainably promote young doctors to work as general practitioners in rural regions through didactical and financial support.

'You Also Have to Let People Go'-Effects of Formative Experiences with Dying and Death on Medical Trainees' Attitudes.

This study investigates the effects of medical students' and residents' formative patient death experiences on their understanding of the role of the physician in dealing with dying patients. Analyses revealed a change in attitude, an acceptance of death as 'part of life'. Thoughtful and comprehensive care, allowing patients to die and enabling them to have a beautiful death, were identified as the physician's duty.

Insights into the meaning of medical students' studies. An online survey at two medical faculties.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate how medical students' deal with their own questions of meaning during their studies, how they cope with patients' questions of meaning or crises of meaning, to what extent their experience of meaning changes during their studies, and what role medical studies play in this.

Methods: In 2022, we conducted an exploratory cross-sectional study in the form of an online survey at two German universities with students in the clinical part of their studies. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, and group differences were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests.