THE Federal Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, visited Bendigo last week to open the La Trobe Rural Health School’s research conference.<\/p>\n
Ms Kearney said the conference, the first held one in person in two years, was an important day of discussion for things from ageing populations to COVID-19, workforce shortages, mental health and cultural safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at ways regional healthcare can be improved because unfortunately, the current state of affairs is people in rural and regional areas have specific needs that aren\u2019t being appropriately met,\u201d Ms Kearney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo look at innovative ways we can improve that is important and La Trobe University does an incredible job doing research into that.<\/p>\n
Ms Kearney said the Federal Government was elected at a time when the workforce is \u201cunder enormous pressure\u201d and she supports work being done by La Trobe to try improving conditions for workers.<\/p>\n
LRHS dean, Professor Jane Mills, said there is a shortage of staff being felt across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the major problems we have is around retaining staff,\u201d she said. \u201cThe health workforce environment is so high pressure at the moment that it is quite hard for early year clinicians to survive the first few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they make it past the first three years, we know they\u2019ll stick and stay in the workforce, so for us one of the interesting areas we\u2019re currently investigating is what are those pressure points and how can we petter develop interventions that will assist people to actually stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Mills said the rural health school would like to work further with the Federal Government to create placement hubs in smaller areas in northern Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that students that have a positive rural experience in particular towns are likely to get a job there and stay when they graduate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to push out even further into regional Victoria and support our students to undertake placements in areas outside our main four campuses is an important project for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Federal Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, visited Bendigo last week to open the La Trobe Rural Health School’s research conference. Ms Kearney said the conference, the first held one in person in two years, was an important day of discussion for things from ageing populations to COVID-19, workforce shortages, mental […]<\/p>\n