Message from Head of Mayne Academy of Rural and Remote Medicine

In overviewing the year I would like to first start by thanking our wonderful staff, practices, hospitals and communities for giving our young doctors such inspiring learning and life experiences.

In the refreshed MD program we have asked you to be involved in all years of the program and you have stepped up wonderfully.

2023, the first year of the new program, featured an onsite rural immersion for 100 students and a virtual immersion for another 360. It included the first 60 of our regionally based students in Central Queensland and Wide Bay. An additional 30 Darling Downs students are to follow next year.

Next year we will inspire the second-year students with a Year 2 Rural and Remote, Global and Extreme Medicine Personal Learning Stream. The new program will see our Year 3 and 4 students have extended placements in the rural sites. We are embedding a rural context into the structured learning across all years of the program. All of this provides a well-rounded education for our students and shows them the career opportunities available in rural areas.

As we transition, we are making sure that there is no gap in student numbers and so, we will see some general practice and overseas students at our rural sites over the coming year. This will be a continuing feature into the future to allow keen students to have rural experiences.

All of this is based on many years of accumulated evidence that “you cannot be what you cannot see”.

We thank the University for their commitment to delivering a University for Queensland and we look forward to what next year will bring.