A country practice

Issue 20 | Spring/Summer 2007

Report: Tim Mitchell and Steve Pogonowski
Photography: Melissa Di Ciero and Greg Ford

First-year ERC students Rachelle Smith and Scott Robson

The shortage of trained doctors willing to work in rural and remote areas of Australia gains persistent attention.

Monash University continues to be part of the solution. The first university to set up a centre for rural health a decade ago, Monash is next year starting a new Graduate Medicine course at its Gippsland Campus.

Dr Peter Stevens is one of a rare breed. Working out of the Heyfield Medical Centre, 40 minutes drive north west of Sale in regional Victoria, he is an Australian doctor passionate about living and working in a rural general practice.

"Running a small community practice is very rewarding," he said. "There is a sense of community and much more insight into the person and their context - who they are, where they come from, what their connections are. There can be lots of positives about rural life and living, it is not a dead end or a negative."

Dr Stevens' interest in a rural general practice is shared by Monash University, which established the Centre for Rural Health a decade ago.

Next year the Gippsland Medical School will be one of a few across Australia to offer a graduate medical degree, with teaching and placements all taking place in regional areas.

The course will be one of a handful of its type in Australia, with a strong emphasis on clinical placement and a priority to attract, train and retain rural and regional doctors.

There will be an intake of 60 graduate medicine students at Gippsland next year. They will spend the first year at a new $10 million purpose-built facility at the campus, then undertake clinical rotations at nearby hospitals, community health centres and general practices for the following three years.

Professor Chris Browne said the School's work-based learning approach would give students more hands-on experience, in a broader range of issues.

"We have arranged placements in a range of health contexts from the fringes of the city out to the NSW border and from the alps to the sea," said Professor Browne, the head of the new School.

"We are working closely with health services in the region and our very presence has already led to the addition of local facilities."

But it is not just the learning setting that has a rural flavour. Associate Professor William Hart said the Gippsland Medical School wanted to recruit a significant number of qualified graduate students who had lived or worked in country and regional areas.

It is these cultural, community, even sporting, connections and experiences linking them to the bush, which he hopes will pay dividends in the long term.

"Our focus is to not only attract students who are used to living in rural and regional areas, but to also retain them in those communities," he said. "Not many people living in regional areas previously had this option."

Recently the course received final accreditation from the Australian Medical Council.

But even before students have started learning, the creation of the course is already having a positive impact on the local community, with new doctors and specialists wanting to move into the area, keen to set up partnerships with the University and local hospitals.

Dr Stevens will also be watching closely from his Heyfield practice over the coming years, hopeful we will see a new era of country doctors, perhaps a successor.

"If people have an extended immersion in rural areas and we support them well and provide them with material to make an informed decision, don't be surprised they stay in significant numbers," he said.

For further information, visit the Medical, Nursing and Health Sciences faculty website.

Students make tracks for country Victoria

Many country teenagers make the move to the big smoke for university. Lured by opportunities for study and work, a large percentage settle permanently in the city after graduation.

A group of Monash medical students is bucking the trend by spending five semesters doing clinical rounds in country hospitals such as Mildura, Bendigo and Shepparton.

Students enrolled in the Extended Rural Cohort stream will undertake the majority of their clinical education within hospitals and community-based practices in regional Victoria.

First-year student Rachelle Smith grew up in Torquay and now lives in student housing on the Clayton campus. Her experience of visiting Aboriginal communities while in high school developed her interest in a career in rural medicine.

She hopes to continue working in rural areas after completing her studies.

"There are better opportunities for work in the country. As we do more of our course in those rural areas, we get the chance to meet other people who work out there," she said.

"There are also the different challenges. If I was starting out in the city I may be doing a lesser role as an intern whereas I would be working alongside and learning from more experienced people in the country."

Scott Robson grew up in Buninyong, near Ballarat, and relishes the idea of going back to the country to do his clinical rounds and probably work after graduation.

"I liked what the course had to offer. It will be a lot more hands-on than other uni courses for our clinical rounds; you're not just part of a big group following the doctor around," he said.