The life of a rural health professional is rarely an easy one, however, there are a number of benefits, sometimes intangible, of working with a backdrop of some of the most beautiful scenery the world has to offer, within closely-knit communities. The New Zealand Institute of Rural Health is committed to a long-term solution to relieving the rural health workforce crisis.  Evidence and research, mainly from Australia at this point, indicates that in order to attract health professionals to rural practice, recruitment need to commence in schools and for undergraduate curricula to offer either targeted rural streams or large amounts of exposure to rural settings in the main curriculum.

We are working with educational facilities and rural providers to influence curriculum development and to create well supported rural opportunities for students. For example, we see the development of scholarships for rural students and the creation of rural support clubs are effective ways of influencing students’ career choices towards rural practice.

We would like to survey educational Institutions who provide courses in nursing to establish how they currently provide opportunities for rural clinical practice as well as any barriers or enhances they experience in this provision. The aim of the survey is to be able to produce a list of educational institutions that have a rural focus to part of their nursing course. This will enable prospective student who are interested in rural nursing to choose an institution which will facilitate rural exposure during their study. Should the survey indicate gaps or barriers to provision of rural clinical experience the Institute intends to research ways to fill the gaps. We would appreciate your participation in this survey and will provide feedback on the results.

Please click here to print the questionnaire.

If you have any questions or queries please don't hesitate to contact:

Gytha Lancaster
07 823 9274
gytha@nzirh.org.nz




Last Updated 2 June 2009