Summer scholarships
Exposure to rural areas while studying can increase the likelihood of choosing a rural location for professional practice. Even more than that, rural professionals will often choose the exact location where they had student experiences. Locations should therefore try to attract students to visit. One way of doing this is to establish short term summer jobs or scholarships which involve some mix of project work (often research) and clinical exposure. Scholarships provide living expenses and a small salary for 6 or 8 weeks.
ImplementabilityRelatively difficult to implement
Planning needs to be exemplary if this process is going to work. The host practitioner/s would be required to be present for the duration of the placement, and there would need to be an adequate amount of work available to ensure that the student is fulfilled and engaged. If a good impression isn’t made during this ‘summer’ period, it is unlikely that the student will be interested in returning for an extended duration.
Success factors
Scholarships need some level of cooperation between the hosting community (the health service, school, municipality who will supervise the student) and the student’s home university (Zorzi et al., 2005). Scholarships work best when there is some formal recognition of their value by the university. Scholarships work best if there are multiple people in the rural location who share the task of supervising the student. Attention should also be paid to engaging the student in the social life of the location.
Challenges
For ‘hands on’ professions such as health and education, it may be difficult to provide interesting practical experiences during summer holiday periods because the host practitioners are on leave, or schools or particular health programs are closed. ‘Clinical exposure’ also needs to consider the preparedness of the student and host to undertake practical work.
Making a move to a rural or remote community, relocating and building a life there is a major consideration. Prospective employers want to reach recruits with more than just a job advertisement; it must be easy for target recruits to access any information that would influence them in making this major life decision. Professionals may have families including a spouse who needs to find work, and children requiring education and activities.
Engagement of communities in defining their recruitment and retention strategy is essential to the development of partnerships that will make the entire suite of interventions work. Having communities involved in defining the approach that will be used in their community ensures that solutions are feasible in their specific environment, and that community members are more likely to sustain them.
Developing an academic/training mandate for an organization, and potentially seeking funds to allow professional teams to dedicate time to training the professionals of the future will lead to a strong return on investment. There is a clear and substantial body of evidence which confirms that offering health professional training in rural and remote environments leads to increased retention of those professionals. Furthermore, training and rural and remote environments ensures that professionals have the unique skills that are needed for rural practice.
Zorzi A, Rourke J, Kennard M, Peterson M, Miller K. Combined research and clinical learning make rural summer studentship program a successful model. Rural and Remote Health(Internet) 2005; 5: 401. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=401