Rural Remote Health
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Rural Remote Health · Apr 2007
Medical students' perceptions of barriers to training at a rural clinical school.
In response to concerns about the decreasing rural health workforce, the Australian Government has funded a number of clinical schools in rural locations across Australia. The University of Melbourne established its Rural Clinical School (RCS) in 2000, at Shepparton, population 42,000, 175 km north of Melbourne, Victoria. The University of Melbourne also has three metropolitan-based clinical schools. Rural clinical schools in Australia generally have experienced difficulty in recruiting students. This has also been the experience of the University of Melbourne's Shepparton-based RCS. This study focuses on student perceptions in an attempt to understand the reasons behind this difficulty. ⋯ Although little can be done regarding family and financial issues, these remain important concerns for students when considering relocation to a RCS. In addition, academic results and quality of teaching remain important concerns for students, despite evidence that, for the RCS, these are equal to or better than at The University of Melbourne metropolitan clinical schools.
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Rural Remote Health · Apr 2007
Training emergency medicine doctors for rural and regional Australia: can we learn from other countries?
Australia is a country with a relatively small rural population dispersed over an enormous area. Issues similar to how best to deliver health services and recruit health professionals to rural areas exist in other countries. For professional and lifestyle reasons, most specialist doctors (including emergency medicine specialists), choose to live and work in major metropolitan centres. Outside the major Australian cities, most presentations to emergency departments are dealt with by 'non-specialist' doctors, often with limited specialist back up. Recruitment of suitably trained medical staff is increasingly difficult. There is increasing reliance on overseas trained doctors from widely varying backgrounds. In Canada and New Zealand, family medicine trained emergency medicine doctors are a significant proportion of the workforce in rural and regional emergency departments. ⋯ There is need in Australia to offer a specific postgraduate qualification in emergency medicine for doctors wishing to practise emergency medicine outside major city hospitals. Ideally, such a course would be largely taught in rural and regional hospitals and would contain additional elements relevant to rural practice. The Canadian and New Zealand emergency medicine qualifications may be useful models.