FIFTEEN third and fourth year medical students will spend the next 12 months at the School of Rural Health in Orange as they consider basing their careers in the country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Another 17 fourth year students have started training at the School of Rural Health in Dubbo.
The students came from the University of Sydney’s Medical Program and School of Rural Health deputy head and school associate professor Gabriel Shannon said there is a waiting list each year.
He said the rural placement program has been running for 12 years with about 16 students spending a year of training in Orange and Dubbo each year.
Head of school Associate Dean Associate Professor Mark Arnold said last year 63 per cent of graduating medical students who had attended a University of Sydney Rural School expressed a preference to work in a rural area and 82 per cent of them said where possible they would opt for a generalist career.
“Ninety per cent of students who attended a University of Sydney Rural School agreed or strongly agreed that their rural medical experience had increased their interest in pursuing a career in rural or regional Australia,” he said.
However, he said it can take more than eight years of supervised vocational practice after graduation to become a qualified rural doctor which can affect the student’s intentions over time due to life changes.
Murray Darling Medical School executive director Mark Burdack is seeking to start a new regional medical school and referring to figures from the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand report said last Tuesday that less than 18 per cent of final-year medical students intend to work in rural or regional practice after graduation.
“We know that at present fewer than 10 per cent of graduates from typical metropolitan medical schools actually move into rural practice each year, so good intentions don’t always translate into practice,” Mr Burdack said.
However, Professor Shannon said students selected for the School of Rural Health generally express a desire to work in regional areas or come from regional areas so that figure was higher.
“Of all those who have completed their training, 28 per cent of those who have come through here are working regionally,” Professor Shannon said.
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
