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RMIP director and regional coordinator, Ashburton, Janine Lander (centre) with doctors Sam Tait and Hannah Wilkinson. Photo: RNZ <\/p>\nThere are two fake rooms inside Ashburton Hospital. And often, they are 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
Hill, a senior doctor at the hospital, is also the clinical lead of the Rural Health Academic Centre, Ashburton (RHACA), 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
The suites are used to run training and re-training courses for rural hospital staff – refreshing important skills that are not\u00a0exercised 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).<\/p>\n
RMIP director and regional coordinator, Ashburton, Janine Lander (centre) with doctors Sam Tait and Hannah Wilkinson. Photo: RNZ <\/p>\n
Hannah Wilkinson was selected for the RMIP in 2023 – and she is\u00a0back 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
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 has\u00a0seen cases that you would\u00a0only 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
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RNZ\/Anisha Satya <\/p>\n
It is 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
“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
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