{"id":583456,"date":"2026-08-28T23:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583456\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T23:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:08:14","slug":"country-life-how-two-fake-rooms-inside-ashburton-hospital-are-helping-keep-rural-medicine-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583456\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Life: How two fake rooms inside Ashburton Hospital are helping keep rural medicine alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two fake rooms inside Ashburton Hospital. And often, they’re occupied by fake patients.<\/p>\n

“Twenty years ago, they were just, kind of, lumps of plastic,” Dr Chris Hill said, looking at a mannequin through an observation window of one of the hospital’s simulation suites.<\/p>\n

“The modern iteration … it breathes, it can talk, it opens and closes its eyes, we can change its airway, so you find it really hard to be able to put a breathing tube in.”<\/p>\n

\"Lecturers<\/p>\n

Lecturers Chris Hill and Karly Burrowes study a simulation patient monitor.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n

Training the future of rural emergency care<\/p>\n

Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, iHeart<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

Hill, a senior doctor at the hospital, is also the clinical lead of the Rural Health Academic Centre, Ashburton (RHACA)<\/a>, a training and research facility for students and new healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

The simulation suites are helping ready a new generation of rural doctors, nurses, and support staff.<\/p>\n

“[Mannequins] allow us to do these complex procedures, but in a safe environment, where you can make mistakes.”<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the adult-sized mannequins used at RHACA. This one is able to “breathe,” scream and make vomiting sounds.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n

The suites are used to run training and re-training courses for rural hospital staff – refreshing important skills that aren’t exercised often in smaller areas.<\/p>\n

They are also used to train a handful of University of Otago students, who spend a year in the hospital through the Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hannah Wilkinson was selected for the RMIP in 2023 – and she’s back on rotation from Christchurch as a house officer, or junior doctor.<\/p>\n

“It was a super supportive environment, and really sold working in rural environments,” she said.<\/p>\n

Low staff numbers in rural hospitals posed a challenge – but also an opportunity.<\/p>\n

“Because there’s less people on the ground, you get the chance to do things that you wouldn’t necessarily [get] in Christchurch, because someone more senior might need to gain that experience before you’re given that priority.<\/p>\n

“Everyone’s just doing their best with the number of people that we have. But also, the community feel is really, really nice here.”<\/p>\n

\"RMIP<\/p>\n

RMIP Director and Regional Co\u2011ordinator, Ashburton, Janine Lander (centre) with doctors Sam Tait and Hannah Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n

Fellow former RMIP member Samantha Tait also returned to Ashburton as a rural registrar, through a hospital medicine training programme.<\/p>\n

Over her study and career, she’s seen cases that you’d only come across in a farming town.<\/p>\n

“Especially the emergency department; lots of bowled over by cows, bitten by sheep, just things that you wouldn’t even have to think about in the larger hospitals.”<\/p>\n

Ashburton’s location is a plus for her.<\/p>\n

“We can work some pretty long hours, so being close to the outdoors and having all this beautiful countryside to go and visit on our days off is just awesome.<\/p>\n

“There are still those that enjoy working and living in big cities, but definitely a lot of my colleagues have enjoyed going out and living and working rurally.”<\/p>\n

It’s that combination of experience, contact time and community that sells RHACA and Ashburton’s RMIP to the future practitioners of rural healthcare.<\/p>\n

“Our students spend roughly 60 percent of their time in general practice and another 40 percent in hospital,” doctor and RMIP coordinator Dr Janine Lander said.<\/p>\n

\"RMIP<\/p>\n

RMIP Director and Regional Co\u2011ordinator, Ashburton, Janine Lander.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n

“A lot of students have rural backgrounds, and they’re quite motivated to get back to rural communities.<\/p>\n

“[Others] just have rural intentions in their future, maybe it’s something that they’ve experienced but not necessarily lived in.”<\/p>\n

She said recent research showed RMIP graduates were at least six times as likely to head back into rural practices for postgrad.<\/p>\n

Dr Lander said good work is done locally to support university students, and she would like to extend those efforts to high school students.<\/p>\n

“We’re really keen to get into the high schools and encourage our local students to start thinking about health professional careers.<\/p>\n

“It’s just the most rewarding career I can think of.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A shelf of medications and medical tools that could come in handy when treating a rural patient.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/Anisha Satya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are two fake rooms inside Ashburton Hospital. And often, they’re occupied by fake patients. “Twenty years ago,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-583456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}