Published in The Australian, 2 November 2016

Universities should increase the number of places in their nursing and allied health programs for rural and remote students to help tackle the shortage of health professionals outside metropolitan Australia, according to a new study.

The research, commissioned by Rural Health Workforce Australia, also calls on universities to boost the number of rural clinical placements available to students and the amount of rural health practice content in curriculums.

Despite ongoing efforts to develop the rural health workforce in recent years, the nursing and allied health students interviewed by the researchers reported “little awareness of initiatives and incentives aimed at increasing rural recruitment”.

New efforts to promote careers outside the main cities were needed to encourage graduates to go rural, according to the study by Monash and Newcastle universities and the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs.

Tony Smith, deputy director of Newcastle University’s Department of Rural Health, said that lack of awareness of the practice opportunities in rural areas among students and teaching staff at urban universities was a factor contributing to the decisions made by graduates.

“Yet the message that came through strongly in the interviews we did was that rural health is a professionally rewarding and personally desirable place to be. The local community really values their role,” Dr Smith said.

The study found students were heavily influenced by positive rural and remote placements, but these depended on financial and logistical support.

Dr Smith said the federal government did not fund rural placements for nursing and allied health students to the same extent as it did for medical students.
“Doctors are important but they’re not the only answer to addressing the disparity in health outcomes between rural and metropolitan Australia,” he said.

“Allied health and nursing professionals have an important role in health promotion and disease prevention, which in turn saves the government money by keeping people out of hospital.”

Ian Wronski, chairman of the Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences, said many of the study’s recommendations re­inforced existing initiatives but these needed to be combined into a single “rural pipeline strategy”.

While various initiatives had been funded over the past decade, such as the university departments of rural health and the National Rural Student Network, Professor Wronski criticised the recent $4.2 million cut in annual commonwealth scholarships for allied health.

The latest study focused on urban universities, but Professor Wronski said regional universities had a central role to play in the development of the rural and remote allied health workforce.

“Regional universities are best placed to enact strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of allied health graduates in rural and remote locations,” he said.

For dietitian Will Gold, who graduated from the University of Newcastle last year, the decision to go rural has led to a fulfilling and challenging role working with indigenous communities for not-for-profit primary healthcare provider Boab Health Services.

Mr Gold works alongside other allied health professionals in remote communities, sometimes up to a seven-hour drive from Broome, helping to improve health literacy and prevent disease.

“You have to mature quickly as a clinician out here and make decisions on the fly,” said Mr Gold. “But I think that’s part of why I was employed: I was seen as someone who was able to take on those challenges.”

Mr Gold said he understood why students could be apprehensive about doing rural and remote work. “But once you get out here you realise how close the communities are and how welcoming and fun it can be,” he said.