A South Australian university has announced plans to expand its student placement program in the Riverland in a push to ease the region's health workforce shortages.
Flinders University received a $1.9 million grant from the federal government to boost its Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) program.
It means an extra 18 students will be placed in the Riverland and Murray Bridge areas of South Australia in healthcare settings where they will learn on the job, while studying.
The program has been in place for the past two decades.
Dean of Rural and Remote Health Professor Robyn Aitken said the university wants to focus on placing needed specialties in places outside of the region's large towns like Renmark, Berri, and Murray Bridge.
"We'll spend the next six months scoping out what's needed for the community," she said.
Community, not just money, motivating students
Shortages of health and medical staff in the Riverland have been well documented, with two hospitals currently operating with reduced services.
The Waikerie Health Service's birthing service has been closed since January due to a long-running midwife shortage.
Meanwhile, Karoonda Hospital's Emergency Department has transitioned away from a permanent staffing model after being closed completely for a period late last year.
National Rural Health Alliance CEO Dr Gabrielle O'Kane welcomed more health students being placed in regional areas, a move she said was the first step to expanding the rural workforce.
But she said there needed to be more support from the health industry to keep students in the regions once they had finished their placement.
"There's that sense of professional isolation, so we need to make sure people feel supported either by other people in their own profession or part of their multidisciplinary team.
"It may not matter how much you're paying them. If they don't feel supported and they don't feel like there's a really clear career pathway they won't stay for any length of time."
Professor Aitken said the RHMT program typically saw around 30 per cent of its participants staying on in either the place they completed placement or in another regional area.
She said the extra funding would allow the university to find more ways to make students feel at home in rural SA, such as highly subsidised housing.
"What we've found over the 25 years of working in the Riverland is that if we have accommodation for students, so that they come and live in local communities, they become immersed in that," she said.
"Rural South Australia has particularly high workforce needs, and what that means is that as an incentive, if they've already had that experience … they're much more likely to get employment in their early years."
