{"id":26225,"date":"2026-07-27T13:20:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/?p=26225"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:29:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:59:43","slug":"prac-payment-expansion-to-benefit-more-flinders-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/2026\/07\/27\/prac-payment-expansion-to-benefit-more-flinders-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Prac payment expansion to benefit more Flinders students"},"content":{"rendered":"

More\u00a0Flinders\u00a0allied\u00a0health\u00a0students\u00a0are set to benefit\u00a0after the Australian Government announced it will expand the Commonwealth\u00a0Prac\u00a0Payment to an\u00a0additional\u00a010 key frontline health professions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The change\u00a0means more students will be able to receive financial support while\u00a0they complete\u00a0mandatory unpaid\u00a0placements,\u00a0helping\u00a0ease cost-of-living pressures.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From 1 July 2027, the scheme will expand to support eligible students training in areas such as clinical psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, paramedicine, radiography, pharmacy, rehabilitation therapies, audiology and podiatry, in addition to the existing teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, twelve of our nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy and clinical psychology students met with Australia’s Minister for Education, Jason Clare<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>and Minister for Health and Aging Mark Butler, to talk about how\u00a0prac\u00a0payments (short for practical placement payments) have helped support them during their studies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Alex\u00a0Sutton, who is in her final year of a Master of Occupational Therapy degree,\u00a0the financial reality of unpaid placements meant putting her\u00a0undergraduate\u00a0studies on hold for a year\u00a0because she could not afford to\u00a0support herself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u00a0won’t\u00a0personally\u00a0benefit\u00a0from the expansion,\u00a0I’m\u00a0genuinely excited for the students who will<\/span>,\u201d Sutton said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0have to choose between pursuing a healthcare career and being able to afford rent,\u00a0groceries\u00a0or other\u00a0basic necessities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis change makes occupational therapy and other healthcare degrees more accessible, regardless of someone’s financial background.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hannah Brumpton, who is studying a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), said\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0funding\u00a0will \u201cchange the way myself (and many others) are able to live while on clinical placement\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis financial support from the government will help prevent \u2018placement poverty\u2019,\u00a0diversify the psychology workforce, and create more\u00a0equitable\u00a0opportunities for all students,\u201d Brumpton said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c”It means I\u00a0am able to\u00a0sustain my own wellbeing while I work to support that of others.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Tracy Humphrey, Vice-President and Executive Dean of the College of Health and Enablement, said the government\u2019s announcement\u00a0will help reduce the risk of student placement poverty,\u00a0stress\u00a0and anxiety.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know that one of the reasons our students take longer to complete their course or have to leave is the cost of travelling to and from placement and the loss of income from paid employment whilst on placement,\u201d Professor Humphrey said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u00a0are\u00a0local,\u00a0national\u00a0and global health workforce shortages\u00a0contributing to patients not being able to access services locally or in\u00a0a timely\u00a0way, which leads to poorer outcomes and experiences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision will enable our students to continue to progress through their course in a timely way so they can enter the workforce sooner.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Ali Dymmott, Lead of Rural Health Transformation at the College of Health and Enablement, said the move will provide a welcome boost to students studying at Flinders\u2019 regional and rural campuses \u2013 many of whom come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, are the first in their family to attend university, have family or caring responsibilities, or have to travel long distances to get to university.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to be able to reduce any barriers for people\u00a0who\u00a0want to do a healthcare degree,\u00a0particularly in\u00a0regional\u00a0and rural areas,\u201d Dr Dymmott said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo hopefully this decision will help attract\u00a0students who are going to make excellent health professionals because they have the drive, the passion and the ability to be excellent in the practice, not just those who can afford it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 1,300 Flinders nursing, midwifery,\u00a0education\u00a0and social work students have so far\u00a0benefited\u00a0from the\u00a0prac\u00a0payment initiative since it was introduced\u00a0on 1\u00a0July 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The scheme’s expansion will help hundreds more Flinders students complete their studies\u00a0and enter the frontline health workforce sooner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Flinders
More Flinders allied health students will benefit from the government’s decision to expand the prac payment initiative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More\u00a0Flinders\u00a0allied\u00a0health\u00a0students\u00a0are set to benefit\u00a0after the Australian Government announced it will expand the Commonwealth\u00a0Prac\u00a0Payment to an\u00a0additional\u00a010 key frontline health professions.\u00a0 The change\u00a0means more students will be able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7346,"featured_media":26227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59902,7560,15040],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-of-health-and-enablement","category-college-of-medicine-and-public-health","category-college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26225"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26230,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26225\/revisions\/26230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}