University of New England (UNE) Medical fourth year students Lily Bragg and Gina Bowden have spent the past 9 weeks doing their rural placement at Inverell Hospital.
Their experience has been hands on and when they talk to their friends in metropolitan hospitals, they realise how lucky they’ve been.
“They talk about how they have to go on night shift just to do cannulas, but Gina and I did 20 in a day,” Ms Bragg said.
The students are part of the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) program. Developed in 2022, this 19-week placement helps students learn about living and working in a rural community.
The students say what they’ve appreciated most about the program is the relationships they’ve made.
That was highlighted for Ms Bowden when they met a pregnant woman in an antenatal clinic. A few weeks later they attended her emergency C-section.
“It was nice to have that continuity… Whereas for my placement in Gosford last year, you would spend a week in theatres, a week on the ward, a week in clinic. There’s no way you’re ever going to see that kind of follow through for a patient,” she said.
According to program coordinator Dr Maree Puxty, the clerkship was developed because they were worried they weren’t fulfilling their goal of producing rural doctors.
While they accept students from rural and non-rural origin, their intentions are clear.
“The philosophy is to grow our own medical workforce… We are absolutely selecting students that have ambition to be rural doctors,” she explained.
Ms Bragg and Ms Bowden fit this brief. Both come from regional Queensland and intend to work as rural generalists in the future.
Working in rural medicine, they see immediately the impact they can make.
“(You) get to foster those connections and really get to change people’s lives and make a difference with people,” Lily said.
Does the program work?
From the 15 graduates so far, 11 of them are working as junior doctors in rural New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland.
One of the first graduates transitioned to the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program. She will soon return to Inverell as a GP registrar.
“She is fulfilling that vision. So that’s very positive,” Dr Puxty said.
To enhance the grow your own philosophy, UNE are also launching a Regional Health Professional Pathway in 2026.
It will provide Commonwealth supported positions for degree qualified healthcare workers in the Hunter New England Health District.
“They will undertake medicine remotely and continue to work at least part time in their chosen health field while they’re studying.
“Like the LIC programme, they’re an embedded member of the health workforce team in that community.
“They’ve made connections with the community… We hope it really will grow our own rural doctors,” Dr Puxty said.
Local police, local commitment
Healthcare isn’t the only sector investing in local talent. NSW Police now have a similar program.
‘Be A Cop in Your Hometown’ aims to attract new police officers to take up a position in the area they already live in. NSW Police know that moving away from home locations can be a big ask so this is one initiative to fill some vacancies in police districts across regional areas.
“The initiative removes one of the big barriers for people who may be considering becoming a police officer,” Inspector Tina Davies, Manager of the NSW Police Force Recruitment Branch told NE Times.
This program is yet to have any applicants in the New England Police District, but organisers are hopeful.
“Now is an excellent time for those considering a career with the NSWPF to apply,” she said.
Some applicants from other areas have requested New England towns, including Moree and Armidale, upon graduation.
“While we cannot guarantee their placement, we will make every effort to facilitate their requests,” Inspector Davies said.
Why investing in local talent works
Another organisation in New England that has success growing their own workforce is HealthWISE.
They provide mental health, allied health and Aboriginal health services throughout northwest NSW and southern Queensland.
Rural and regional areas need primary health doctors, but what’s sometimes forgotten are skilled support, administrative and allied health staff that pick up the slack.
HealthWISE identified this growing demand and invest into upskilling their staff to do those roles.
“Our health workforce is a workforce in demand. There tend to be plenty of jobs in urban areas, and so we have the challenge of attracting the workforce to a rural and regional area.” said CEO Fiona Strang.
“Once we can attract them, the systems and programmes we have within our organisation to retain them seem to work,” she said.
Their philosophy includes building a culture that puts the client at the centre, supporting staff, and providing flexibility.
They invest in professional development and formalised mentoring to make sure staff feel supported and have a pathway for career advancement.
“We’ve recently had a trainee who’s now completed that course and has stepped into an Aboriginal Health Worker position. We’ve also got a couple of Aboriginal Health workers who are training to be allied health assistants.
“We’ve had three staff from the Ezidi community, and they’ve initially come in as translators under our care navigation programme. They’ve been up skilled, and now they are the care navigators and provide the frontline service to our Ezidi people,” Ms Strang continued.
Inclusion is also a big part of their strategy. 23 per cent of their staff are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and a significant proportion have English as a second or additional language.
They have a cultural inclusion framework, Aboriginal Health Workforce Strategy, and a LGBTIQ+ framework in development.
“They’re just not bits of paper. We involve the staff in implementing, so it goes through the whole organisation,” Ms Strang explained.
By building a positive and inclusive culture, the results speak for themselves.
“We’ve got a high percentage of people within the organisation who’ve been with us over 10 years, and some are coming up for 20 years,” she said.
There are no quick fixes for workforce shortages. But initiatives like this show one solution could lie closer to home than we think.
“I think you have more success if you build your own from within,” Ms Strang concluded.
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