 |
|
 Addressing the rural health crisis Regional Australia is in the grip of a chronic shortage of health workers. Charles Sturt University (CSU), as one of the nation’s fastest growing providers of rural health professionals, could hold some solutions to this problem.
 With an ever-ageing poulation that is placing greater demands on the national health care system, Australia has struggled to fill the demand for health professionals – nurses, dieticians, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, radiologists and speech pathologists as well as doctors and dentists – most notably in regional and rural Australia.As Australia’s inland University, CSU is in a unique position to tackle the problems of attracting, educating and retaining qualified and committed health professionals.
Patrick Ball, CSU’s Professor of Rural Pharmacy within the Faculty of Health says “There is no simple answer to the problem – each community, large and small, needs to investigate and assess its own health care needs and seek solutions that best address these needs”.
Train rural to stay rural
 Associate Professor Julia Coyle believes one key way of addressing the crisis is to educate regional people in regional areas for regional professional positions.The Head of CSU’s School of Community Health, based in Albury on the NSW-Victorian border, believes training regional students in metropolitan institutions is not the answer to the shortage.
“The majority of students enrolled in CSU’s allied health courses come from rural and regional backgrounds. These people inherently understand the issues that their communities experience in accessing health services. Most of our staff are also former clinicians who have worked in regional and remote areas, so they understand what our students will face on graduation.”
The latest report by the University’s Western Research Institute (WRI) confirms this, with 73 percent of all CSU’s on-campus graduates between 2003 and 2005 from regional locations and taking up their first employment in regional Australia.
The figures were even higher for health courses, with 75 per cent of health graduates from regional locations employed initially in regional Australia. This was an increase of 2 per cent per year from 1995 to 2005.
Figures compiled for CSU’s physiotherapy course by its acting course coordinator, Megan Smith, also support the contention of “training rural to stay rural”.
“Since our first physiotherapists graduated in 2002, 56 per cent of graduates have been employed in small rural centres and regional cities, while 44 per cent are in metropolitan Australia, including Canberra and Wollongong. CSU graduates are found around Australia, including more remote areas of States and territories,” Ms Smith said.
Preparation is key
 According to senior CSU speech pathology lecturer Dr Ruth Beecham, it is essential to prepare graduates for rural practice.“At CSU, we challenge our students from their first year, shifting them outside their comfort zones while instilling in them the need for a caring attitude and a sense of community service,” Dr Beecham said.
“We get them working in the community and bring the community to them from the start of their courses, as part of their clinical experience. We employ parent and client tutors to show our students what it is like to work with people with disabilities and we work in schools and volunteer community organisations. Sound working relationships and active collaboration with local and State-wide organisations is vital for this to occur,” she said.
“Graduates working in rural Australia must be flexible, resilient and able to think laterally – all attributes that employers commend our CSU graduates for. Working in regional areas often means you usually don’t have ready access to the services and equipment commonly found in metropolitan areas, so you have to think, plan and be ready to use simple resources.”
Raising the bar for rural practice
Professor Coyle says rural practice should be a specialty in its own right for all allied health professions, “something to aspire to and not considered a ‘dead end’ career choice.
“Working in small professional groups is a growing practice in regional Australia. As health care services become more integrated, it is vital we embrace interdisciplinary collaboration as a standard way to work – and teach.
“The local community nurse needs to work closely with occupational therapists and speech pathologists to offer sound health care in small rural communities, as these specialist professionals might only visit town once a month.
“Employers are looking for graduates who can hit the ground running, can collaborate and understand the systems in which other health professionals work.”
Professor Ball contends professional education must “raise the bar” and encourage personal and professional development, not just maintain the status quo in regional practices.
 “We must look at how we can retain graduates once we get them there to improve services to the community while providing greater job satisfaction and job progression.
“To address community needs, some professionals may need extra training or added financial incentives, so institutions such as Charles Sturt University must be ready to assist with short courses or post graduate qualifications. But some of these don’t necessarily fit with current State and Federal government policies.
“In addition, some professional organisations may need to loosen their restrictions. Flexibility is the key.”
Retaining professionals in regional areas
Professor Gail Whiteford, Director of Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Research into Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE) cites a growing body of research that highlights factors that professionals are looking for to remain in or return to regional areas.
 The research includes a CSU study for the NSW Department of Education into how to attract and retain teachers in regional Australia, as well as a similar comprehensive study based in central and northern Queensland that covered a range of professions.“The Queensland study cites ‘providing better services in regional hubs’ and ‘training local people in basic service delivery’ as the most important mechanisms to deliver services in regional areas,” Professor Whiteford said.
“We believe we can go one step better by developing professionals that are more likely to remain in regional hubs and rural areas to fill the growing needs of regional Australia.
ends Author: Wes Ward Publication Date: 03 Jan 2007
Editor's Note: Charles Sturt University was the first inland institution to offer allied health degrees such as physiotherapy, pharmacy, speech pathology, occupational therapy, podiatry and medical imaging. Twelve years experience in teaching these courses and a strong graduate employment record in regional areas makes CSU well placed to comment on methods to train and retain allied health professionals in regional and rural Australia.
Media Note: For interviews and print quality pictures, contact CSU Media. Related Images:  |
|
