The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia

The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) has been honoured in the 2008 Premier's Awards for Excellence in Public Sector Management - twice. The School was one of three finalists in two categories: "Creating Jobs and Economic Prosperity" and "Strengthening Regional Western Australia". It was judged the winner of the former.

The RCSWA 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 of, and enthusiasm for rural life and rural practice.

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

In 2007, the Rural Clinical School successfully incorporated medical students from the University of Notre 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. The students represent 25% of 5th year UWA and 3rd year UNDA cohorts. They spend the entire academic year at their site.

The Rural Clinical School started in four towns in rural Western Australia in 2002 with three staff and seven students. Those 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 about 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 to accommodate that increase.

The School is still administered from Kalgoorlie, and has only a small urban presence located in the UWA Faculty of Medicine building on the QEII Medical Centre campus. Exceptional local doctors and administrative staff have been recruited at each of the sites, and provided with comprehensive backup to achieve their task. 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 programme. "The same curriculum is taught in ten different ways". There is constant electronic communication, and 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. The quality of teaching and learning has been a major focus of the RCSWA and a number of the academic staff have completed Post-graduate diplomas in medical education since joining the school. Furthermore the educational 'Model' is attracting international attention.

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 National Health and Medical Research Council 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.

Professor Geoff Riley, Head of School

Selected RCSWA Publications
Rural and Remote Health 2005
Medical Teacher, Vol 28, No 4, 2006
Medical Journal of Australia 2007
Medical Journal of Australia 21/07/2008