La Trobe University’s Rural Health School in Bendigo, regional Victoria, is part of a far reaching plan to stem the shortage of health professionals in rural areas by revolutionising the way rural healthcare education is delivered.

The new school is part of the Regional Strategic Plan 2009 – 2012 announced by La Trobe University in June this year, with the purpose of enhancing the economic, social and cultural fabric of regional communities. As Dr Amanda Kenny, Director, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bendigo, and Associate Professor of Rural and Regional Nursing at La Trobe University confirms, it also represents a “vote of confidence” from the Federal Government, which funded the new school to the tune of around $60 million.

Part of La Trobe Rural Health School (LRHS) - which also includes centres at Mildura, Shepparton and Wodonga – the Bendigo school will educate over 700 additional students in a range of health professional programs. Courses offered cover nursing and midwifery, dentistry, human biosciences, occupational therapy, oral health, paramedics, physiotherapy, public health or social work, speech pathology and podiatry.

The school will be based in a state of the art education and research precinct boasting modern facilities and co-located with a GP Super Clinic and several other health hubs – including Bendigo Health headquarters and a Monash University centre. This will allow students to receive education and hands-on experience in one locale.

The new faculty’s real point of difference extends beyond bricks-and-mortar facilities, by spear-heading new education programs tailor made to meet local demand, says Dr Kenny.

“We’ve learned through experience that importing metropolitan students into rural areas doesn’t have much effect,” she says. “Similarly cash bonus schemes to attract health professionals to rural areas have had limited success. ‘Importing’ overseas health professionals to remote parts of the Australian countryside is also problematic, as language barriers and the often isolated nature of such roles work against long term social integration.”

Past setbacks have triggered a total re-think of rural health delivery and by extension education, she says.

“La Trobe recognises that the future of rural health lies in focusing on people already living in rural areas. Much of the time this means focusing on mature students, and in fact around 60 per cent of our students are in that category.”

The new approach has engendered a new learning model. Effective from January 2010, the model will see students undertake 18 months of university study followed by 18 months within a clinical school setting, where they will be educated in partnership with health services.

“Students will be learning in a realistic work environment. They become part of their health service and also part of the health work force.”

Another new aspect to the model is that all health science students will undertake a ‘common’ first year, where they all study the same subjects.

“This is a major advantage for a rural workforce, which is by necessity inter-professional and multi-disciplinary.”

La Trobe’s model could have wider implications for the delivery of rural health education nationally. A speaker at the recent Reforming Australia’s Health Workforce forum in Sydney on November 23 and 24, Dr Kenny says the model has received significant interest from interstate education providers.

Recognising that many nursing and allied health professionals, particularly in rural and regional areas, are mature students - often married women with families - the new model is designed to enable a number of flexible education and career pathways, and includes Tafe programs, short programs and Masters programs.

“It recognises that people’s lives have changed. Universities are no longer the hallowed halls of learning they once were. Around 80 per cent of students studying nursing are also working 15 hours a week,” Dr Kenny confirms.

“In creating a new way of looking at rural health and rural health education, La Trobe is making a strong statement that rural and regional education delivery must happen in line with rural and regional requirements.”

The new more “hands-on” approach to training could also have long term implications for nursing and allied health education in metropolitan as well as rural areas.

“The transfer of nursing into a purely university-based environment was once deemed a universal panacea. However the evidence shows that it’s not working effectively. This move is pushing the pendulum back to a practice based education system that will prepare all nursing professionals for the real world.”