Maria Jose

Dr Maria Jose qualified as a medical doctor from the University of Cape Town in 2011. She has experience in clinical medicine as well as academia. She is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and is completing her Master’s in Public Health with a focus on Health Economics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

She is currently conducting a discrete choice experiment researching the rural internship job attribute preferences of final year medical students in South Africa. 

Most countries worldwide report a far higher density of doctors in urban areas compared to rural areas, which is vastly disproportionate to the overall population densities of these areas. Although there is data available to describe health workers practise location intentions, there is currently a dearth of knowledge on the relationships between rural medical facility factors such as rural allowance, safety and housing on the job uptake preferences of medical students in South Africa. 

Maria will conduct a series of focus group discussions to inform the creation of the DCE questionnaire that will then be administered to final year medical students. Following analysis, her research output will be a journal article and policy brief which can provide valuable information to facility managers and policy makers to direct their efforts on improving the identified influential facility attributes to attract more doctors to rural internship placements.

Her interests include the health worker labour market, educational technology consulting and design thinking.

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