rural infrastructure to improve medical education and interest in rural medicine
Today's announcement that the Federal Government will invest $33 million for essential medical education infrastructure will improve the quality of medical education in Australia and increase medical students' awareness of the benefits and importance of rural and regional medical practice, says the Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA).
President of AMSA Ross Roberts-Thomson said that this announcement was welcomed by students and has important implications for medical education in Australia.
"Medical students enjoy the lifestyle, the challenges and increased clinical exposure associated with rural medical practice, and they will certainly take advantage of increased clinical training opportunities that these Federal infrastructure grants will bring.
"With medical student numbers on the rise, increasing rural and regional training opportunities will utilise the wealth of knowledge in these settings whilst improving the quality of medical education in Australia further by taking some of the training stress and traffic out of major medical centres.
"Finally, these investments, which aim to facilitate improvements in the quality and quantity of rural clinical training, may result in students choosing rural medical practice as a career, which can only be a good thing for rural and regional Australia," said Mr Roberts-Thomson.
The grants will cover infrastructure to construct or expand student education facilities, student accommodation, primary care teaching sites, and distance education facilities.
