The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia

Welcome to The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia

Professor Geoff Riley, Head of School

The Rural Clinical School was established with generous Federal funding in 2002 within the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences of the University of Western Australia with the explicit goal of attracting more doctors to regional, rural and remote practice. Medical students spend an entire academic year in a rural town, which as well as offering excellent educational opportunity, provides for the possibility of a real understanding and enthusiasm for rural life and rural practice.

The Rural Clinical School started in four towns in rural Western Australia in 2002 with 3 staff and seven students. The sites were Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Broome with the headquarters being in Kalgoorlie. The School has progressively enlarged so that in 2008 there are 67 students, and more than 70 academic and administrative staff spread over 10 sites. The current sites are; Derby; Broome; Port Hedland; Karratha; Geraldton; Bunbury; Narrogin; Albany; Esperance and Kalgoorlie. In 2009, we expect to take on a further nine students and will accordingly begin developing two more sites during 2008. The students represent 25% of 5th year UWA undergraduates and 3rd year UNDA undergraduates. They spend the entire academic year at their site.

In 2007, the Rural Clinical School successfully incorporated medical students from the University of No tre Dame Australia (UNDA) and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with UNDA to establish The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) - one collaborative, rural clinical school in the State. Another remarkable achievement. Approximately one third of the students now come from UNDA.

This extraordinary development was achieved under the leadership of the founding Head of School, Professor Campbell Murdoch. It was Professor Murdoch whose vision and resolute belief in rural practitioners' ability to teach an innovative undergraduate medical curriculum that has created an exemplary Australian Rural Clinical School.

The School is still administered from Kalgoorlie, and has only a small urban presence located in the UWA Faculty of Medicine building on the QEIIMC campus. Exceptional local doctors and administrative staff have been recruited at each of the sites, and provided with comprehensive backup. Each site comprises an administrative and teaching building as a base, student accommodation (usually houses owned by the RCSWA) and vehicles, libraries, computers, videoconferencing and electronic communication and recording systems.

The students' clinical placements occur in General Practices, local Hospitals, Community and remote Clinics, Aboriginal Medical Services and other health facilities. The sites are heterogeneous in many respects, and accordingly are granted significant autonomy in the delivery of the program. There is constant electronic communication, but there are four, two-day face-to-face meetings of the staff annually.

The students are well supported with free accommodation and travel, subsidised mobile phones, laptops loaned for the year, weekly allowance and more. And they make the most of the opportunities offered by living in rural communities usually joining local sporting teams, or volunteering in service clubs or emergency services.

The RCSWA program is very highly regarded nationally and in 2007 was awarded a prestigious Carrick Award predominantly for curriculum innovation. The content (and outcome) of the curriculum is identical to the urban curriculum, but it is delivered in a significantly different way. The students are taught and assessed (examined) to the same standard as the urban students and the results are entirely comparable to the urban programme.

A strong base of research has also been progressively established with a particular focus on indigenous health and several research groups are now winning nationally competitive grants including NHMRC grants.

At this stage it is too early to say whether the initiative will be successful in encouraging more doctors to take up rural practice but early indications are strongly suggestive that this will be the case.

Selected RCSWA Publications
Rural and Remote Health 2005
Medical Teacher, Vol 28, No 4, 2006
Medical Journal of Australia 2007