Ensuring that future health professionals are attracted to rural and remote health careers

In order to increase the health workforce in rural and remote Australia, we need a system that trains and educates graduates with an interest in living and working in rural Australia.

Key points

• Too few Australian-trained health graduates are choosing rural and remote practice
• We know that many factors influence a person’s decision to be a rural health professional and there are still a substantial number of actual and perceived barriers which need to be addressed
• We know that students with a rural background are more likely to choose rural or remote practice. Therefore we want more rural origin students to be able to access health profession university places
• We know that those who have had a positive experience of General Practice are more likely to choose General Practice
• We know that those who have a positive rural experience are more likely to choose rural practice
• We need to work across areas ranging from high school, university entrance, university training and postgraduate training to increase the number of Australian-trained graduates choosing rural practice

Strategic priorities

• We will continue to promote rural and remote health careers to high school students and university students
• We will identify and partner with the various organisations and programs that have the capacity to negatively or positively influence whether a graduate would choose rural or remote practice
• We will work in partnership with these organisations to increase their understanding of rural and remote issues and to advocate for changes that will positively impact on the number of people who choose rural and remote practice