Ten new medical students have arrived in the Limestone Coast to continue their training.
Flinders University has run the Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) program in Mount Gambier since 2002, which brings 10 medical students to the region for a year.
This year’s students started the program this month and are in their third year of medical school at Flinders University.
Program Administrator Jacqui Michalski said the program exposed students to rural medicine and enabled them to immerse themselves into their communities.
“Our aim is to encourage students to return and work in our regional health sectors and having them living and learning in our communities encourages this,” Ms Michalski said. “It’s all about training future rural doctors. “We have had quite a good success rate of students coming through and then returning for placements, then returning as an intern, then staying or coming back to the region after further training.”
The students are allocated to a practice in Mount Gambier, Naracoorte or Hamilton but meet as a group once a week for a study day. “Because they rely on each other during the year and they study together and work together, they do become very tight-knit over the year,” Ms Michalski said.
“Throughout the action-packed year, the students receive a personalised, hands-on and clinical experience. “They are valuable team members in the clinics and hospitals and will be recognised on a first-name basis. “The students receive exceptional support from staff.
They are taught in small groups and receive one-on-one support. “They have two designated clinical educators and tutorials from local and visiting specialists, including a weekly tutorial within their allocated GP clinic.
“They have support in the clinic, they have support here from us, so they’re very well supported.” Student Jamie Pannett from Bunbury said the biggest benefit of going rural was the community.
“It’s the connections that I have already started to make with people in my cohort and the greater community that I am really looking forward to,” he said. “This opportunity is fantastic for my development as a junior doctor. “It gives us context as to why we do things in hospitals and general practice.”
Student Heath Christie, who grew up in Bendigo, said he planned to live in Mount Gambier or somewhere similar in the future. “Mount Gambier is good because they now have a dedicated psych ward and I’m thinking about either Psychiatry or General Practice,” he said.
“Having this experience over the next year will give me a really good picture as to whether I want to go down the route of psychiatry or general practice.”
