Why Study With Us?

There are many reasons to undertake your education and training with us. Some of these include

• Low student to academic ratio
  As a student you get close contact with academics and clinicians
• On site clinical facilities
  Access to readily accessible clinical facilities (eg: Clinical skills lab)
• Patient availabilities
  There are opportunities to examine a wide variety of patient presentations and diagnostic treatment outcomes of particular interest in your studies
• Rural Electives
  There are opportunities to concentrate on community projects with a rural health focus
• Rural Opportunities
  Experience the lifestyle and rural health issues visiting regional, isolated and Indigenous communities

Mulit-professional Learning approach.

There are many reasons for employing multi-professional education (MPE) in the University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) and Rural Clinical School (RCS) programs. Foremost among these is that, although the concept of patient-centred care is dependent upon professionals viewing themselves as a team, teamwork can be severely limited by poor collaborative skills, discord, apathy and ignorance of professionals about the roles of other team members. The Northern NSW UDRH provides a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration to occur amongst academic staff, clinical practitioners and the students.

Being linked to the University of Newcastle's multidisciplinary Faculty of Health makes it possible to include a variety of the health professional education programs in MPE initiatives: Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition and Dietetics, Medical Radiation Science, Nursing and Physiotherapy. In addition, close collaboration with the Faculty of Health, Education and Professional Studies at the University of New England (UNE) presents further opportunities to explore joint multi-professional education initiatives.

A number of rural-focused, multi-professional learning modules (MLMs) have been developed through the UDRH with the support of UNE and the New England Area Health Service.

Being part of the UDRH gives you exposure to rural settings where smaller sites can offer a wider range of experiences. It is also more conducive to better learning if you are part of a small team and you can build a repour with your tutor and supervisor. This will help with your personalised relationship with them and inevitably give you exposure to issues that may not come up every day. Having a good relationship with tutors and supervisors will also help if you need one-on-one assistance with issues that may be challenging for you.

Our team of multi professional employees will make your experience and placement memorable and long lasting. You will no doubt, remember long into your professional career the experiences that you gain from exposure to rural health and the UDRH/RCS

Learning advantages

In January 2003 the University Department of Rural Health - Northern New South Wales (UDRH) and New England Area Health Service (NEAHS) established a Clinical Skills Laboratory. UDRH Clinical Skills Laboratory is equipped with a state of the art manikin Laerdal SimMan, SimBaby and various other paediatric manikins, partial task trainers, Zoll defibrillator and other emergency equipment.

The health clinician needs to be able to deal with acute medical emergencies appropriately. The capacity to react in a crisis situation with the appropriate medical intervention is crucial to the delivery of excellent and safe health care. Provision of clinical skills education and competency assessment is vital for professional development and competency skills. The UDRH Clinical Skills Laboratory is an innovation that is developing the acute resuscitation skills of undergraduate students and staff of the area health service