Students given a taste of the country

Split into two groups of seven and six visiting the Coromandel and West Coast respectively. The volunteer-led programme visited four health providers and 13 schools over the course of four days, building valuable knowledge and life experiences of the rural healthcare scene.

Speaking to Rural News, Greymouth GP and pioneering figure in the Rural Immersion Programme for medical students Dr Greville Wood says what is assumed about urban medicine cannot necessarily be attributed to rural.

"The students went up to our practice and Westport where they have the GP and hospital as part of one building," he told Rural News.

Auckland University Paramedicine student Bethany Joy Hines, who has been on two West Coast trips in the last two years, says the area reminds her of her hometown of Kaikoura.

"My decision to go into paramedicine was because of the people and diversity in the job that I get... no two days are ever the same," she told Rural News.

"Rural healthcare and communities come together and look at people's health as a whole [in] a kind of holistic view which I really like.  think that that's something that often gets missed in urban areas."

The Rural Health Careers Promotion programme is crucial to Hauora Taiwhenua's efforts to address New Zealand's chronic lack of rural health professionals. Hauora Taiwheua chief executive Dr Grant Davidson says the general practice workforce crisis in New Zealand was worsening.

"In fact, have stopped calling it a crisis and are referring to it as an emergency. While we currently rely on international doctos to fill the gaps in our rural workforce, the long-term solution is to train more doctors, nurses and other health professionals here in New Zealand and prepare and encourage them to work in our rural areas."

Wood credits Greymouth's early initiation into such rural training programs for its relatively superior staffing situation, such as having year-round physios.

"These programs are critical to the survival of medicine in New Zealand," he told Rural News. "Many urban origin students love it and these programmes interest urban origin students to go rural."

Wood additionally points out that the main predictor of whether you work in rural or urban depends on where you had your primary schooling, but says universities ask where you went to high school.

"Many of our rural students don't have the teachers to teach them what they need so they go to boarding schools, so then they tick urban and are not counted as rural."

The goal of the programme, with its emphasis on hands-on experience through interactive workshops, is to address barriers such as distance, travel and isolation which rural students face when considering health as a study and career option while inspiring them to consider various tertiary health education disciplines.

Although the difficulties and stress faced by rural health workers is common knowledge, that has not deterred Hines.

"There are a lot of challenges, but without people putting their hands up and saying 'I'm prepared to do this', things won't change," she says.

"One of the best things I experienced while I was there [Greymouth] was just how eager a lot of the young people were to learn about opportunities available to them in high school, seeing their faces light up and get excited about being able to participate in the activities that we had."