School of Medical and Health Sciences

Thursday, 04 June 2020

The WA Centre for Rural Health (WACRH) has expanded its semester long final year student placement program to offer the first year-long final year clinical placement in partnership with Edith Cowan University (ECU).

Early this year the Geraldton and Midwest community welcomed Elizabeth Flowers for her year-long immersive placement with WACRH as part of her final year Speech Pathology degree through ECU, Perth.

The year-long program is part of WACRH’s future rural health workforce strategy which aims to boost students’ intention to work rurally following graduation.

This new program complements the existing semester long placement program that WACRH has offered for the last six years with students coming from four different Australian universities.

WACRH’s Clinical Educators Kathryn Fitzgerald and Belinda Goodale are excited about the benefits of the year-long program for students, clinical educators and the community.

ECU have adapted curriculum requirements to suit this new placement structure and are keen to explore this placement structure for future students.

Whilst on placement, Elizabeth will live in accommodation provided by WACRH and complete her placement part-time.

The placement is flexible to allow her to meet on-campus commitments at ECU as well as fitting in with coursework.

ECU offer tutorials with other students on placement via video link up and this is an ongoing support for all students including those in rural and remote placements. WACRH has a well-designed virtual platform to support students’ online learning.

The placement is designed to prepare students for entry-level rural practice and the experiences Elizabeth will have are carefully balanced to achieve this.

Throughout the year, she will participate in service learning placement opportunities at residential aged care facilities, the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Service, with WACRH student teaching clinics for adults, hospital-based rehabilitation and participate in a block placement in the remote community of Mount Magnet.

Elizabeth will gain experience in all areas of practice including swallowing, speech, language, voice and multimodal.

The placement includes a significant amount of interprofessional learning with other student professionals such as exercise physiology, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy and others.

Learning culture and identity from and with local Yamaji people is a key component to a student placement with WACRH.

Proposed Benefits

There are proposed benefits to a year-long placement for Elizabeth, the Geraldton and Mid West region, and clinical educators:

Elizabeth will have the opportunity to form long term relationships with placement sites and follow clients and programs for a longer time than in a traditional placement. Immersion will result in increased understanding of rural health. A part time placement allows for better balance between work, study and her placement. It is hoped she will have an increased integration within the rural community both professionally and socially.

Midwest communities and community placement sites enjoy supporting students and will form greater bonds with students who are here for the longer term. The long-term benefit for the rural communities is that students are more likely to return to that town or another rural community in the future.

Clinical educators aim to share of love of rural health over the longer placement with students who are interested in rural practice. A year also offers increased opportunities for a wide range of experiences for students, allowing more time for covering all range of practice requirements.

WACRH plan to offer a year-long placements on an ongoing basis and look forward to discussing partnerships with interested universities.