Education/Training - South Eastern Section
Medical
Our medical staff at Dubbo and Broken Hill continue to be closely involved in teaching practice, helping to raise awareness among newly qualified doctors of the needs of people living in the bush. We believe education and training of students in rural and remote areas is key to reducing the shortage of health practitioners in these areas.
In collaboration with the University of Sydney’s Department of Rural Health (UDRH) in Broken Hill, and School of Rural Health in Dubbo, our staff provide training, mentoring and placements for student doctors. In this way we hope to encourage them to undertake rural placements on graduation, ensuring suitably qualified professionals for the future. As part of our academic relationship with the University of Sydney in Broken Hill, three RFDS medical officers have conjoint appointments with the UDRH, participating in teaching and research while also conducting their RFDS clinical practice and primary healthcare clinics.
Our academic medical officer, Dr David Garne, has been developing a new training program which is a collaboration between three universities. As a result, from July 09, medical students will spend between six and 12 months in the Broken Hill region – much longer placements than previously. The RFDS will be a key partner in these extended placements.
The successful recruitment of extra doctors in Dubbo also strengthens our local partnership with the University of Sydney’s Clinical School there. RFDS doctors in Dubbo have taken on academic duties and become an important part of the University’s teaching staff. In 2007 Dubbo flight nurses welcomed medical students onto transfer flights to give them first hand experience of the complexities of patient care in such a specialised environment.
Dental and Nursing
We have also expanded the number of placements we provide for dental students via our practice in Broken Hill and we offer midwifery scholarships to flight nurses as a way of attracting staff to work for us. On the horizon for the future is the development of a two week emergency post-graduate nursing placement with the RFDS.