Students gain rural health immersion as programme goes from strength to strength

Sixty-three students from a diverse range of health professions called Whakatāne home this year as they got to grips with the requirements of practising in a rural setting.

The Eastern Bay's Rural Health Interprofessional training Programme (RHIP) was set up to improve the recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural areas by providing students with an opportunity to live, study and work together in Whakatāne.

The 2019 intake was its largest yet.

RHIP began in 2012 with a small pilot involving three disciplines and seven students. Now, more than 350 students have completed the programme.

Students have returned to the area once graduated for employment directly resulting from their experience on RHIP boosting the rural health workforce.

An example is a paramedicine student, from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in the most recent cohort, who has been accepted for employment at St John Whakatāne.

This locality was not on her radar prior to RHIP.

Feedback from the students on the programme continued to be overwhelmingly positive:

Dane Naidoo (Medicine - UoA) said "The RHIP programme combined my community medicine placement with opportunities to explore the local community and to get to know local Iwi and their stories. The connections I made during the programme have made providing healthcare in the local area a lot more personal and have played a pivotal role in returning to the Eastern Bay of Plenty as a graduate."

Denise Taylor (Nursing - Wintec) said "The RHIP program is a unique placement. I felt welcomed, supported and got exposed to a rural community that I fell in love with. In five weeks, lifelong friendships were made with my peers on the RHIP program. I could not express enough how exceptional the RHIP program and people who run it are and will be forever grateful that I was lucky enough to be part of it."

And Alice Cloke (Paramedicine – AUT) said "For me the RHIP programme was the highlight of my academic year and the stepping stone to a full time job! The Eastern Bay of Plenty is the perfect setting to provide an insight into rural and Maori health. Practical experiences on the programme lead me to appreciate the area and its diversity; they will be invaluable as I begin my new role in Whakatane."

The programme included students from a wide range of existing health professions; medicine, pharmacy, social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, paramedicine, nursing, midwifery, and speech language therapy.

This year also included students from optometry, nutrition and dietetics.

Immersion in the local community while living and working together meant that students had the opportunity to learn from other professional peers, leading to improved working relationships and a better understanding of how to work together and contribute to patient care.

Academic coordinator Yvonne Boyes said she was immensely proud of how the programme had gone from strength to strength.

"Key to RHIP's success is the quality of support that students receive from the DHB's Regional Māori Health Services, hospital staff, Eastern Bay General Practice community and primary care providers who have really embraced the programme" said Boyes.

"This support goes a long way to ensuring the viability of our future health work force".

The RHIP programme exemplified a holistic approach to health and students gain a better understanding of Tikanga Māori, public health priorities and how social issues influence health.

The willingness from health providers in the community and health professionals to supervise and train the students was key to the programme's success.

"RHIP has made a significant difference to how we educate students and widen their experience and knowledge with rural health disparities" said the Head of the BOP Clinical Campus, Assistant Dean, University of Auckland, Professor Peter Gilling.

"We know this is making a positive impact on the recruitment of health professionals to rural areas – and they really enjoy it".

RHIP is a joint initiative between the University of Auckland and the Bay of Plenty District Health Board's Clinical Campus and receives funding from Health Workforce New Zealand.

Eight tertiary institutions prove students to experience rural life and placements in the community.