Abstract
Introduction/Background
Rural populations experience reduced access to healthcare and poorer health outcomes than metropolitan populations. Student placements in rural locations are a commonly used strategy to build the rural health workforce. Understanding the essential ingredients of high-quality rural student placements would help to leverage this strategy (Quilliam et al., 2023). However, currently no standardised definition of quality in rural health student placements exists (Green et al., 2022). A key stakeholder voice is missing from the literature: the perspectives of university staff who have a role in designing, administering, delivering, and/or evaluating rural health student placements (Green et al., 2022). As a multi-university team of rural academics and health professionals from University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) in Australia, the authors set out to investigate what essential ingredients make up quality student placements in regional, rural, and remote Australia.
Methods
Data collection is underway using a convergent mixed methods design with two components. The ECOUTER methodology has been employed in Component B, which aims to capture the important perspectives of geographically dispersed regional, rural, and remote university staff. ECOUTER (Employing COnceptUal schema for policy and Translation Engagement in Research) is from the French verb ‘to listen’ and comprises four iterative stages of data collection and analysis. It's an awkward acronym, albeit an innovative approach to capture practice wisdom, via iterative and interactive virtual mind-mapping processes.
Results/Evaluation
Nineteen UDRHs were invited to participate as a case study. Ten UDRHs agreed to participate. Between 6 and 15 participants participated per UDRH (85 participants in total). The completion of ECOUTER stages will result in an overall mind map and conceptual schema report. This will include a summary of each identified concept regarding ingredients of high-quality health student placements.
Discussion
This is the first Australian-wide study exploring features of high-quality rural health student placements. The findings will inform discussions with Australian government rural health workforce policymakers.
Rural populations experience reduced access to healthcare and poorer health outcomes than metropolitan populations. Student placements in rural locations are a commonly used strategy to build the rural health workforce. Understanding the essential ingredients of high-quality rural student placements would help to leverage this strategy (Quilliam et al., 2023). However, currently no standardised definition of quality in rural health student placements exists (Green et al., 2022). A key stakeholder voice is missing from the literature: the perspectives of university staff who have a role in designing, administering, delivering, and/or evaluating rural health student placements (Green et al., 2022). As a multi-university team of rural academics and health professionals from University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) in Australia, the authors set out to investigate what essential ingredients make up quality student placements in regional, rural, and remote Australia.
Methods
Data collection is underway using a convergent mixed methods design with two components. The ECOUTER methodology has been employed in Component B, which aims to capture the important perspectives of geographically dispersed regional, rural, and remote university staff. ECOUTER (Employing COnceptUal schema for policy and Translation Engagement in Research) is from the French verb ‘to listen’ and comprises four iterative stages of data collection and analysis. It's an awkward acronym, albeit an innovative approach to capture practice wisdom, via iterative and interactive virtual mind-mapping processes.
Results/Evaluation
Nineteen UDRHs were invited to participate as a case study. Ten UDRHs agreed to participate. Between 6 and 15 participants participated per UDRH (85 participants in total). The completion of ECOUTER stages will result in an overall mind map and conceptual schema report. This will include a summary of each identified concept regarding ingredients of high-quality health student placements.
Discussion
This is the first Australian-wide study exploring features of high-quality rural health student placements. The findings will inform discussions with Australian government rural health workforce policymakers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) 2024 Festival Abstract Book |
| Publisher | Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) |
| Pages | 262 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-6488285-4-9 |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2024 |
Keywords
- Rural health
- Remote health
- Health care access
- Student placements
