Engaging with rural health services to develop pathways to rural generalist nursing careers to overcome rural nursing shortages

Description

In 2022 I sought funding from Three Rivers to develop a collaborative project with Mid North Coast (MNC) LHD to develop a collaborative partnership to support growth and retention of registered nurses in rural areas to overcome the chronic nursing shortage. This model described as "Grow your own" aims to grow local workforce in a regional local health district (LHD) by having students complete all their clinical placements within a specific LHD. The aims of this project are to strengthen nursing recruitment strategies and workforce, strengthen a students sense of belonging and familiarity with a facility to reduce workforce attrition and support student transition to professional practice. It also aims to improve student clinical placement , or work integrated learning (WIL), experiences to support both their academic and professional experience. These students also have the opportunity of paid work within the LHD during their student years which both supports students and bolsters workforce. The ultimate aim is that students are retained within this LHD post graduation as a registered nurse.
This collaborative project has now been expanded to Port Macquarie Private Hospital, Albury Wodonga Health (AWH), and Western LHD (WLHD) with interest from other areas.. Theses area health services cover the medical services within the Charles Sturt University Footprint.
Research shows that positive , high quality WIL experiences in a specific rural based location contribute to student learning, enhance rural health service capacity and attract a future rural workforce. The collaborative model aims to achieve these outcomes by training a local workforce who will remain local (Quilliam et al, 2024).
I have since been working with Murrumbidgee LHD to expand and extend this partnership model into developing a rural generalist pathway. Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) has a commitment to building a regional nursing workforce to provide career pathways for nurses to train and stay in their regions and Charles Sturt University (CSU) has been a major partner in providing nursing students to the region. This program is an employment pathway for undergraduate nurses seeking a career in rural, regional, and remote nursing. The model will enable nursing students from CSU to be able to:
1.undertake their clinical placements within the MLHD region – including flexible placement hours or compressed schedules,
2.be offered casual employment as an Assistant in Nursing (AIN) upon successful completion of their first year of studies,
3.progress to a graduate nurse program including permanent employment in MLHD upon successful completion of their final year of studies, and successful placement assessments.
4.supporting students to gain access to additional learning development modules. This pathway will enable direct entry into a nursing career within the region.
Both of these projects support students by supporting their extensive WIL placements by offering all placements in one LHD thus minimising travel and accommodation costs, time away from home and family, opportunities for work, and engenders a sense of belonging within the LHD that promotes future post graduate opportunities. It strengthens the relationship between the university and industry partnerships, offering opportunity for further collaboration and research . It also ultimately benefits the community in many ways and improves health outcomes for rural and regional populations.

(University staff perspectives on determinants of high-quality health professions student placements in regional, rural and remote Australia: protocol for a mixed-method study, C. Quilliam at.al, 2024 DOI.10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077079)

Period	2022 → …
Work for	Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Australia, New South Wales
Degree of Recognition	Regional