AN orientation day for Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Rural Medicine was held last Friday at the university’s Macksville campus, with new students in third and fourth year of their medical studies welcomed to the area.

Solving the issues which have led to a shortage of doctors in regional and remote areas requires a multifaceted approach, but the Doctor of Medicine program offered by CSU is working out some of these challenges by encouraging students to complete studies in rural areas, to make local connections and even to return to the region they know and grew up in.

Students in first and second years of the Doctor of Medicine qualification at CSU in Orange attend two weeks each year at a regionally located clinical school.

However, when in the third, fourth and fifth years of their five-year course, they relocate to a clinical school in the region of their choice.

“Previously we ran the program out of Macksville Hospital, but this is the first year we will have our own campus here in Macksville,” Associate Professor and Head of Campus, Karly Field told News Of The Area at the River Street building which has been set up for medical studies.

“For the third, fourth and fifth year of their studies, students spend one day per week with a GP at one of several partnering local clinics and three days at Macksville Hospital,” she explained.

The final day of each week is spent on campus with students following their curriculum and discussing cases which they have encountered through the practical experience days.

Professor Field said the school aims to equip future graduates with a broad and holistic understanding of their field before decisions such as specialisations are made.

This year, two young medical students who grew up in the Coffs Harbour region returned to live locally while they participated in the program.

Now in the third year of their undergraduate studies, Daya and Siya completed high school at Coffs Harbour Education Campus and Bishop Druitt College respectively.

They see many advantages in attending a regionally-based clinical school and look forward to the year at the Macksville campus.

“I think there is a bias that students who have studied in remote areas are less clever and less experienced,” Siya told NOTA, “but actually the opposite is true.

“Because there are less students in the cohort, it allows you to see more patients and encounter a really wide range of medical situations,” she explained.

“I personally would like to stay rural,” Daya told NOTA.

“You get a lot more communication and connection and it’s very rewarding being able to follow through and see the results (of treatment).

“I love to build a relationship with patients and other medical staff,” she said.

By Ned COWIE