Funding boost for ANU Medical School

A $3.6 million boost to the Medical School will see more ANU medical students experience working in rural and regional areas.

Federal Minister for Health Tony Abbott announced the funding to establish a Rural Clinical School during a visit to the University on 28 March.

The announcement means that up to 16 students will spend 12 months in a regional placement in either Batemans Bay, Bega, Cooma, Goulburn or Young, advancing the Medical School's goal of having 25 per cent of its third-year students spending a full-year in a rural or regional setting.

The Associate Dean of the Rural and Community Clinical School and Head of the Academic Unit of Rural Health, Associate Professor Amanda Barnard, said the latest funding would strengthen the rural offerings in the four-year graduate Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery degree, which incorporates regional engagement for students from first year onwards.

“[The funding] will consolidate our already excellent rural program, and allow us to become part of an Australia-wide network of rural clinical schools that is committed to increasing the numbers of students spending their time in rural areas and building up rural and regional medical expertise and workforce,” she said.

“ANU graduates will have real, working experience in country areas. They are aware of the specific issues that GPs and hospital staff face from speaking to and working with them in rural and regional settings over the course of their degree.

“We know there is a shortage of doctors and specialists around the country, but this is especially telling in rural and regional areas. We believe that our students should develop an understanding of the unique health care issues of these areas, and we hope, as do the communities they visit, that they also develop empathy for rural life.”

The latest funding follows a recent Federal Government capital grant of over $1 million to the ANU Medical School’s rural clinical program.

In early March, first-year medical students participated in their first Rural Week in Goulburn, Cooma and Bega. Students participated in a range of activities, including running free blood pressure screening stands where they tested hundreds of people.

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