Identify Your Goals For Providing A Rural Or Remote Clinical Experience For The Service

There are a number of different reasons that you may decide to offer a student a placement in a rural and remote setting.  It may be:

• a strategy to try and recruit staff -if a student has a positive experience on placement then they may consider returning to the area to work
• an interest in student learning - many allied health professionals feel a responsibility or obligation to the profession to take on the role of clinical educator
• professional development  - the experience of having students will develop your clinical reasoning, communication, supervision and leadership skills
• response to University and meeting the increased demand for student placements
• service related - students can undertake research, quality assurance, literature reviews, develop resources or complete projects that you would like done
• response to community need - students may be able to offer additional services that are not currently possible (e.g. input to an aged care facility, inservice to a kindergarten)

Identifying and reflecting on the motivators for the placement may affect the goals of the placement and the model that you choose to use for the placement. For example you may want to provide a service to the community that is not currently available. Having multiple students may be the best way to achieve this goal. Reflect on your practice to identify the drivers behind your decision to offer a rural or remote clinical placement.

Reflection

Identify the drivers behind your decision to offer a clinical placement.

How will this affect the placement that you offer?

Which clinical placement model will best address your identified goals? (e.g. number of students, student’s length of placement, student’s level of experience and year of study)