Program seeks out aspiring doctors to help solve rural GP shortage in years to come

He harboured a quiet ambition for a medical career but said getting there was “seemingly impossible”.

“[At my] small school, we didn’t have things like career advisors that other bigger schools might have,” Jack said.

“I knew medicine existed as a career, but I was really unsure about the process of getting into medicine.”

The 17-year-old graduated alongside seven classmates at his school in Wagga Wagga and has just started his first semester of medical school as part of a mentoring program run by the University of New South Wales.

The university hopes its Riverina high school program is a step towards fixing the severe rural doctor shortage.

There are 153 GPs per 100,000 people in regional areas compared with 208 in major Australian cities, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

‘My kid can do this’

Tara Mackenzie, associate dean and head of school of clinical medicine at the UNSW rural clinical campus in Wagga, said the program could create a pipeline of rural GPs.

She visits high schools across the region and identifies students from year 9 and up who can be mentored all the way into medical school.

“There is clear research that says that if you have kids who’ve lived in the country who go to university in the country, they are way more likely to come back to the country,” Professor Mackenzie said.

She said many rural kids did not realise that university was an option, especially in families with no university graduates.

The program starts by explaining that students can do their full six years of training in Wagga Wagga and invites them to a skills session where they get a chance to try a range of medical procedures.

“It’s really rewarding because the parents can see their kids with a stethoscope around their neck and say, ‘Actually, my kid can do this’,” Professor Mackenzie said.

Eventually, the students get a chance to pair up with a medical student to get a sense of university life.

‘Incredibly rewarding’

The program is taking inspiration from the successful single employer GP model, which was piloted in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).

The trial broke down barriers for doctors wanting to become rural generalists by letting them train in state-run hospitals and private clinics.

Professor Mackenzie said the model achieved 30 years’ worth of recruitment in three years.

Joe Murphy from Young was one of its first graduates and has seen first-hand the importance of a rural person practising in a rural town.

He now works as an obstetrician in the same office as the doctor who delivered him as a baby.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding,” Dr Murphy said.

“I obviously was hesitant coming back to where I grew up — a lot of people are — but it’s been a great success.

“To feel like you belong within a community is very important and that’s influenced our decision, my partner and I, to stay.”

Jack said the UNSW program played an “absolutely massive role” in getting him onto the path he dreamed of.

He said being able to stay and study in familiar surroundings made the idea of medicine “so much easier”.

“I don’t see myself really wanting to move to a big city,” he said.

SOURCE: ABCNEWS