Rural week: An innovation in teaching large first year classes

2005 Australian Awards for University Teaching - Institutional award finalist

With a curriculum change at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Australia, came a greater emphasis on rural health. This was partly fuelled by the shortage of health professionals in rural areas and also prompted by the growing need for a better understanding of health and life style issues of people living in rural and remote areas. We realised if we wanted to get more students taking up rural posts, we needed to expose them to these issues early in their medical course. We also recognised that perhaps the best people to help the students learn about these issues were in fact the people who live in rural towns, not the academics who live in the city. Clearly a traditional lecture/tutorial mode would not be appropriate for a large first year class of 250 students.

The answer for us was Rural Week, implemented in 2000 and delivered every year since. Early in the first year of the course, 250 medical and dental students descend on seven rural towns (on the same day, for five to six days).

The goal of the Rural Week approach is to allow the students to identify and direct their own learning using people living in the community as resources, but maintaining academic rigour and allowing this to occur within the confines of what was logistically manageable for the people of the town and the accompanying staff members. Students determine the health status of populations living in the town and the factors contributing to these. They become immersed in the social context and its impact on all aspects of health.

Student evaluations of the Rural Week experience every year show improvements in the understanding of rural health issues and country living. Students reported improvements in interviewing and communication skills, team work, research skills and social interactions with fellow students. The week made a significant difference in student views about rural practice being an option for a future career.

Contribution from Associate Professor Sally Sandover, PBL Curriculum Consultant/ Graduate Entry Program Co-ordinator, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.