Medical students 
Year 2: Regional Community Week
All students in year 2 of the medical course participate in the
Regional Community Week program (formerly known as Rural Week).
History and Outline
Regional Community Week was piloted as 'Rural Week' in 1996 as
a compulsory one week rural exposure for all 2nd year students of
the four year Graduate Entry Medical Program. The students were
divided into three groups and undertook this one week placement
in locations such as Whyalla, Port Pirie and Port Augusta. From
2001 significant changes to 'Regional Community Week' have occurred
due to changing medical course, student and community needs and
the locations have been varied to include the Riverland, the Greater
Green Triangle and semi-rural fringe metropolitan areas. In 2007
RCW is being piloted in Alice Springs for eight students with the
Centre for Remote Health (CRH) and the Northern Territory Rural
Clinical School (NTRCS). This week will take place to coincide with
Croc Fest in Alice Springs, during the last week of August. Students
will again be visiting the FURCS PRCC locations of Hills Mallee
Fleurieu (HMF) in August, Greater Green Triangle (GGT) in September
and the Riverland in October as part of the RCW program in 2007.
The major objective is for students to gain a positive wide exposure
to rural or regional health community experiences and issues. It
is designed to complement and enhance other rural incentives programs
already in place in other years of the course, which together are
an attempt to address the rural medical work force crisis in Australia.
Students are hosted by local community organisations or establishments.
During the week they participate in presentations by allied health
and medical professionals, a mock disaster with the students as
patients and occupational health and safety from a farm and industry
perspective. They also complete a community based research project
(please refer to examples in the Public Health
Community Research Posters).
The feedback from the students, the various communities and the
health workers has been extremely positive. The students enjoy their
experiences and feel that they gain a lot from it. The communities
enjoy having students and helping them learn about health issues
facing rural communities today.
The 2011 Regional
Community Week student booklet (3212K, PDF) is available for
further information.
2011 RCW Travel Reimbursement form
Note: All claims must be submitted within two weeks of the completion of your RCW placement. Travel reimbursement is based on 3 students travelling in the same car.
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Aims and Objectives
The overall objectives of Regional Community Week relate to three
aims, of different perspectives.
Health Care Network Perspective
1. Students will experience a regional population and community
from a health perspective.
2. Students will develop an understanding of how community and
health networks collaborate to achieve results.
3. Students will explore the attitude of Regional communities
to their resident doctors in regards to both curative care services
and preventative services.
Population and Public Health Perspective
1. Population and Public Health understandings will contribute
to the overall project in distinctive ways, particularly by elaborating
and emphasising:-
a) Individual and community benefits of health promotion and
disease prevention.
b) Societal benefits of achieving enhanced population health
outcomes.
c) Critical differences and distinctions between clinical and
population health perspective’s, and the implications of
these for practice.
d) Provide opportunities for students to develop commitment,
skills and understanding that will enable them to contribute to
improving the health of populations, and to continuing their own
education in this area.
2. Students will experience planning and executing a research
program for a regional setting and be involved in data collection
and processing.
Occupational Health and Safety Perspective
1. Students will develop an understanding of OH&S issues
associated with rural communities including a background understanding
of:
a) People in regional communities may have limited access to
specialist Occupational Health and Safety Information and preventative
services.
b) Some regional communities have an above average incidence
of suicide, accidents and injuries and prevalence of skin, respiratory
and muscular-skeletal diseases.
c) Whilst the rural industry has the third highest rate of fatal
accidents per year, non rural industries may be seen to have less.
d) An understanding of the range of illnesses and injury related
to regional work and the community and work environment in which
it occurs would be a valuable part of the medical Curriculum.
e) Research has indicated that rural/regional doctors express
an interest in acquiring further knowledge of rural/regional health
and safety problems to better equip them for their role in preventative
measures. This may include knowledge and management of pesticide
related illness and zoonoses.
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 Public
Health Community Research Projects
Public Health Community Research Projects are coordinated and supervised
by Professor Neil Piller from the Department of Public Health.
The aim of these projects is for students to work in groups with
members of different background to investigate an issue relevant
to a rural community or to their area(s) of interest. Students
prepare a survey instrument prior to leaving for the rural town
and then administer it on arrival. Generally these studies
are multi-methodological and involve the selection of a convenience
sample, focus group interviews or face to face interviews.
Some studies are repeated for all the rural towns while others are
of a longitudinal nature. The findings are analysed and interpreted
and presented for assessment in the form of a poster or article
ready for publication. All findings and recommendations are
fed back to the relevant communities.
"Methods and Strategies
for your research project - 2003" - Presentation by Prof Neil
Piller (pdf)
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Public Health Community Research Posters 2004 -
2010
This series of posters was prepared by students in the Graduate
Entry Medical Program during 2004 -2010 Regional Community Weeks
in the Riverland, Port Pirie, Greater Green Triangle (GGT), Hills
Mallee Fleurieu (HMF) and Barossa areas and in the Northern Territory.
Many of the posters are on display in the communities which hosted
the students. They are large (typically 90cm x 120cm) and contain
too much detail to be easily read on a web page. Click on the titles
to view the posters in a more detailed .pdf versions. (You will
need
Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit
Reader to view the .pdf versions - these are freely available.)
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
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