Charles Sturt University (CSU) students in regional NSW have formed a rural health club to bring rural health issues to the attention of State and Federal governments and to promote careers in health in regional and remote areas.

It is one of 17 university health clubs around Australia that join together as the National Rural Health Network (NRHN).

“We want all levels of Government to be aware of the plight of the country and to pave the way so that future rural communities can have the same facilities and enjoy equity with their metropolitan counterparts,” said third year CSU nutrition and dietetics student, Alex Holdsworth.

Ms Holdsworth represented the University at the annual NRHN Face to Face meeting in Canberra from 9 to 12 March and was elected the co-junior allied health portfolio holder for 2002.

The Network’s objectives for 2002 are to develop and implement a national rural high school visit program to promote health careers to rural students and to encourage universities with health education programs to develop and expand rural content within their curricula and to provide supported rural placements. 

“We’re targeting rural high schools, as it’s been shown that rural students are more likely to return to rural centres when they graduate,” Miss Holdsworth said.

“We’re trying to get more students into rural areas, where they’re needed most,” she said. 

Last year’s objectives included increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students studying health science, increasing the content of Indigenous health and related issues in university curricula and increasing allied health and nursing scholarships.

This year, the NRHN will host an event for undergraduate students in Shepparton, Victoria, prior to the 5th World Conference on Rural Health in Melbourne in early May. A panel of health science students will speak at the conference on how they can contribute to the health and wellbeing of people in developing nations.

The NRHN - the only undergraduate multi-disciplinary group actively involved in rural health - represents almost 5 000 university students studying degrees such as medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, occupational therapy, nutrition and dietetics and physiotherapy.