Student placements

Rural student placements give you the chance to immerse yourself in real-world clinical practice while experiencing the diversity, challenge, and strong sense of community that regional health is known for.

Across Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, our northern NSW locations offer supportive teams, hands-on experience, and greater patient access than many urban settings.

You’ll work closely with smaller clinical teams, benefit from interprofessional learning, and take part in community activities that help you experience rural life firsthand while contributing to better health outcomes in regional areas.

There are plenty of reasons to go rural with us.

Register your placement

Why go on a rural placement?

• Rural Life & Work Experience - A rural placement is a great opportunity to experience life and work away from home while also learning about unique health-related issues. The rural lifestyle is relaxed and friendly, making it a supportive environment for learning and preparing for your career.
• Subsidised accommodation - Students may be able to access subsidised accommodation, or an accommodation subsidy, through the Department of Rural Health. This may help to keep your accommodation costs low and make your rural placement an affordable way to experience life away from home while studying. Once you have secured your rural placement, you will need to register with our placement portal to apply for access to subsidised accommodation.
• Academic support and mentoring - You will have close contact with on-site academic and clinical teaching staff from your discipline during your placement and rurally based studies. Our academics are always happy to provide support, a listening ear, and advice for your career. You can also attend additional learning activities, such as job webinars.
• Further your career - You will benefit from smaller student numbers compared with metro teaching hospital, which means more opportunities to work with a wide variety of patient presentations. Our students consistently share that the patient cases they experienced were interesting and diverse.
• Interprofessional learning - You will be encouraged to participate and learn alongside students from other disciplines. We support students studying medicine, medical radiation science, nursing, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, social work and speech pathology.
• Community engagement - Our community engagement activities let you experience rural life for yourself and be part of fostering better health and wellbeing in rural regions. Some of our community engagement activities include Parkinson’s support groups, Ironman, after-school learning activities and teddy bear hospitals for children.

Scholarships and Grants

Financial support is available to help make your rural placement more affordable. Scholarships and grants can assist with travel, accommodation, and living expenses while you gain hands-on experience in regional NSW.

Learn more about eligibility and apply for funding through NSW Health Rural Scholarships.