Removing the Roadblocks to Medical and Health Student Training in Rural Hospitals in Victoria

Abstract

Adequate resourcing of placements of a meaningful duration, stronger institutional support, and improved resourcing of regional accommodation is required to facilitate a larger, more systematic and sustainable system of medical and health student placements in rural areas.

Recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners: A marketing approach reveals new possibilities

“…Further policy initiatives seeking to address issues of retention and acquisition have, in our view, left the challenge unresolved. These include: education that recognises intricacies of rural GP diagnostic, therapeutic and clinical management skills; 14 promotion of rural medical education based on the understanding that rural clinical exposure sensitises students to rural health issues and attracts medical graduates to rural practice; 15 positioning of rural internships as an influence on clinical satisfaction outcomes, costs, functional status and wellbeing; 16 whole patient/whole family and community needs‐based care; 17 and increases in regional locum services 18 …”

“…Until now the emphasis in existing literature has been on GP training and barriers to rural recruitment, 15 rural GP excess workload, 19 specific rural GP needs, 14 rural GP work‐related stress 3 and a model for strategic collaboration between rural practices 20 . These perspectives are well removed from a marketing orientation which focuses on interactions between customer, corporation and competitors for mutual exchange benefits and satisfaction.…”

When the tide goes out: health workforce in rural, remote and Indigenous communities

“…There are real challenges in building a regional “teaching health system”. The private sector is underutilised, and ambivalence about academic teaching and research is common in rural public hospitals, in part because of the lack of clarity over clinical teaching as core business, and resource constraints 11 . A lack of political commitment to the inextricable relationship between clinical teaching, research and high quality health services adds to the tensions as to who should fund teaching and training activities.…”

Undergraduate physiotherapy students' expectations and perceptions of rural/regional clinical placements

“…Less focus has been placed on allied health professionals' rural/regional clinical education in Australia, although it has been demonstrated that high‐quality experiences have been of benefit in recruiting staff to rural workplaces . Some concerns have been raised about the ability to deliver quality experiences in regional areas comparable with those obtained in metropolitan settings …”