Reach for the stars: Encouraging our rural and remote secondary students to be future health leaders

Purpose: 1. Discuss the purpose and positive impact of the National Rural Health Student Network’s (NRHSN) Rural High School Visit (RHSV) program. 2. Share experiences from recent RHSV in remote communities. The paper will draw attention to the following goals: Encouraging health careers amongst rural and remote secondary school students, Providing mentors for rural and remote secondary students, Increasing the rural and remote health workforce. The purpose of the RHSV program is to encourage the next generation of rural and remote students to pursue health careers. This is achieved through the sharing of personal education journeys and common experiences with the students.
Australia’s health workforce is maldistributed, with rural and remote areas being under serviced. Evidence shows that rural origin is a strong predictor of eventual rural practice and that promoting health careers to high school students is an important strategy to attract those with rural backgrounds to consider health careers. The usual components of a RHSV are: Sharing personal health career journeys with the high school students, Shedding light on the breadth of health careers and pathways, A practical skills-based component. The paper will present some recent case studies of RHSVs and NRHSN’s experiences with this program. Conclusion: University students sharing their health career journeys with secondary school students through the RHSV program plays an important role in promoting health careers to students in rural and remote communities.
The research currently available and NRHSN case studies indicate that these students will be significantly more likely to return to rural areas when qualified, therefore building the next rural and remote health workforce.