‘Stay in place’ initiative for MD4

MD Rural Stream (MDRS) students have all settled in well to their rural clinical learning environments across rural South Australia.

There are a total of 33 MD3 students and for the first time since the development of MDRS, one MD4 student spending the entire year living and learning in a rural community. Having students ‘stay in place’ for MD4 is an new initiative that came out of the MDRS evaluation project and approved by the Medical Program Board in 2022. The stay in place initiative allows students to complete the clinical years of the Flinders MD rurally where there are also great opportunities for prevocational training and dedicated clinical support and supervision. Expansion of ‘stay in place’ will occur in 2024 with more students having the opportunity to participate. This has been a very exciting addition to the MD and the Rural Clinical School that will no doubt continue to provide more impactful rural clinical learning experiences for students.

Another first for the MDRS is the appointment of a Rural GP/Rural Generalist (RG) student representative. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ms Claire McKenzie in her role as the inaugural GP/RG student representative. Claire is a MDRS MD3 student based in the Barossa who will be representing Flinders University rural clinical students at GP/RG focused activities and events.

Vanessa Ryan
Director, Flinders University Rural Clinical School (SA)