Early Barriers for University Rural Clinical Placements

Abstract

Rural clinical placements are increasingly considered a vital component of modern education of university students in the health sciences (Liaw et al., 2005; Van Hofwegen et al., 2005). Although the original impetus came from shortages in the rural medical workforce, shortages in rural nursing and allied health professionals have also been recognized. Rural clinical placements as a targeted strategy have been shown to have a positive potential for increasing the rural workforce in many disciplines and countries (Denz-Penhey et al., 2005; Kippenbrock et al., 2004; Richards et al., 2005). With the growing emphasis on multi-professional and team-based healthcare, it is becoming increasingly important to support students across all health disciplines. Current support is believed to favour medical students with less assistance being provided for the other health disciplines, although there is little if any published evidence for this. The present report aims to compare support given to medical and health science students going on rural clinical placements to identify potential barriers and areas for improvement. The study was conducted as a pilot for further research in this area.