In rural and remote Australia, we have fewer health professionals than the rest of the country. Being a part of our RIPPAH program will help us improve the health and wellbeing of people who live in rural and remote areas.

Rural placements

Our rural placements give you a unique opportunity to gain diverse experiences and make deep connections in a rural community. The program can:

  • give you high quality training through interprofessional learning
  • help you develop a broad range of skills work as you work across different services
  • open up future work opportunities for you in rural practice when you graduate
  • help you understand the healthcare challenges that rural communities face
  • set you on a journey where you continue to support our communities in rural and remote areas throughout your career.

Doing your placement with us

Students who’ve done a rural placement with RIPPAH tell us the program has helped them have a positive experience. You’ll work in a minimum of 2 health service caseloads while getting to know and spending time in the community for at least 10 weeks. You’ll do your placement at the same time as another student so you’ve both got peer support, but they may be doing a different program.

You’ll have a coordinator as your single point of contact, trained placement supervisors and support from our University Department of Rural Health partners. You can also receive financial and social support for relocating for a rural placement.

Read more about placement benefits.

Who can apply

Research tells us that students who have extended placements in a rural area, or who come from a rural background are more likely to take up rural practice when they graduate. Because of this, we consider applicants backgrounds and past rural experiences when we assess applications. This helps us to address the gaps in the rural and remote health workforce. We encourage applications from any students (not just those from rural backgrounds) who want to pursue a career in rural or remote practice.

Before you apply, check that you’re eligible.

Placement offers

We offer RIPPAH placements to the following students.

Medical imaging students (radiography or sonography) for undergraduate clinical placements with interprofessional learning activities and generalist caseload placements.

Nutrition and dietetic students in medical nutrition therapy, food service management and community and public health nutrition.

Pharmacy students in extended clinical placement blocks including hospital, community, quality use of medicine and industry placements. There are also opportunities covering a rural generalist caseload and specific clinical speciality areas such as renal, cancer care, aged care and medical wards.

Physiotherapy students completing a 'musculoskeletal' placement block plus an 'other' placement block with varied clinical opportunities such as inpatients, musculoskeletal, paediatrics, cancer care, maternity, cardiorespiratory, women’s health.

Occupational therapy students on a rural generalist placement. Including opportunities such as inpatient, rehabilitation, hand therapy, home assessments, vascular/oedema, early childhood development and aged care plus mental health team placements.

Speech pathology students on a rural generalist caseload placement. Including varied clinical opportunities such as early speech and language caseloads, inpatients, aged care, paediatric feeding, adult rehabilitation, voice.

Where you might work

We offer placements in the following hospital and health services.

You can also do your placement with one of our University Department of Rural Health clinics and their partner organisations:

You may work in the following settings:

  • hospitals
  • aged care
  • primary care
  • education
  • service integrated learning.

Allied health teams

Our allied health teams are passionate about delivering high quality health services to their community. Each department is unique and offers a wide range of opportunities for you to experience.

You’ll work closely in a multi-professional team learning from your educators and other rural generalist clinicians. You’ll gain a true understanding of how different health professionals work together and share skills in a real world rural setting.

Meet Helen and learn about the RIPPAH experience

Helen’s an occupational therapist who made the move from metro Brisbane to the Northern Territory before settling in the South West. She talks about the impact of providing services to rural communities, and the significant contribution RIPPAH students are making to rural allied health services.

The first part of my work as an occupational therapist was in large tertiary hospitals within Brisbane, and I was looking for a change and a more generalist type of work. So, I decided to move to the Northern Territory to experience more rural and remote healthcare and then, out here in the South West. I observed that a lot of the students that came out to the South West really made a significant contribution to the services in Allied Health and I think that staying longer and being part of a community is definitely a way that we can ensure there is interest and a sustainable Allied Health workforce going forward in the future.

Being a rural health clinician is really rewarding. There is such a variety of cases that we see and such a breadth of practice that we get to experience out here in the bush. I was drawn to rural health being a bush kid myself, coming back to Roma is coming home, my parents have a property near here. Knowing what needs the bush has as well, growing up here and knowing how limited some of the services can be and how much of an impact that makes.

A RIPPAH placement, our Rural Immersion Placement Program for Allied Health, is making a change for placements where students can apply to come to the region. We offer a bursary for the entirety of the placement program, which are usually ten weeks or longer in our region.

Secondly, we offer free accommodation for students, so they can plan ahead for a longer placement as part of their student placement experience. Thirdly, we offer to support students to find paid work and link with other social activities while they are in the region because being part of a rural community is what makes it great.

The final part that is really different about our RIPPAH placements is that we’re matching the evidence, which is where students who have a longer placement experience actually are more likely to work in rural, because they’ve had a great experience and they understand why we’re all here. It’s a great place to be and we have a great clinical experience while we’re here.

The best part of having a RIPPAH model here, based in Roma, is that we actually get our students to be immersed in the community. Definitely get to be part of not just your own little hospital community, but you get to know everybody else who is in town. There’s sport, there’s races, but probably my favourite stuff is going out and helping mum and dad on the farm and just getting back into that bush lifestyle.

Rural health services are really key and integral to a rural community, so we want to make sure with RIPPAH that we’re bringing the students that want to be here, to have a great experience and really showcasing that what we do here is cutting edge in terms of research and innovation and providing fabulous services for our community.

I’d say those going to apply for a RIPPAH experience, sign up, I think it will truly be an experience of a life time and there’s so much to learn about rural and remote communities, and learn things about yourself, and will make such a difference in terms of your contribution as an Allied Health Professional.

Allied health professions

Our allied health teams may include:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officers and health workers
  • allied health assistants
  • exercise physiologists
  • nutritionists and dietitians
  • occupational therapists
  • pharmacists
  • physiotherapists
  • podiatrists
  • psychologists
  • radiography and sonography
  • speech pathologists
  • social workers.

Last updated: August 2024

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