The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) is a

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

-funded program intended to increase the number of medical graduates interested in rural careers. The school is part of the network of rural clinical schools across Australia funded by the same federal

Department of Health and Ageing The Australian Federal Department of Health and Ageing was an Australian government department that existed between November 2001 and September 2013. The department was created after the 2001 federal election from the Department of ...

workforce program. It places medical students in their penultimate clinical year for an entire academic year in rural towns throughout

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. In 2007, it became the first of Australian RCSs to enter a public-private university partnership. It is a collaboration between its founder, the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

, and the

University of Notre Dame Australia The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) is a national Roman Catholic private university with campuses in and in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. The university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of med ...

. The students represent 25% of third year UWA and third year UNDA medical undergraduates.

Locations

The Rural Clinical School operates in most of the large country towns in Western Australia. It has its head office in

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

, and students in Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Albany, Bunbury,

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

, Carnarvon, Narrogin,

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

, Karratha,

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, Broome and

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

. These towns range in population from 5,000 to 50,000. The students' clinical placements occur in general practices, local hospitals, community and remote clinics, Aboriginal medical services and other health facilities.

Achievements

In 2007 the RCSWA programme was awarded a Carrick Award predominantly for curriculum innovation. The content of the curriculum is identical to the urban curriculum but is delivered in a significantly different way. The students are taught and assessed (examined) to the same standard as the urban students and the results are entirely comparable to the urban programme.

References

* {{cite web , url = http://www.rcs.uwa.edu.au , title = Rural Clinical School of WA , accessdate = 2007-04-12

External links

University of Western Australia

University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle)

Department of Health , Rural Clinical Training and Support
Medical schools in Australia Education in Western Australia Rural organisations in Australia Medical and health organisations based in Western Australia University of Western Australia University of Notre Dame Australia