Media Release: Health Students Celebrate the Completion of the

Health Workforce Queensland’s GROW Rural Central Queensland (GROW Rural CQ) program has seen the current undergraduate cohort engage with the local communities of Woorabinda, Moura and Theodore each year since 2021. This is the third and final year of the program for this multi-disciplinary team of 24 health students who will graduate from the program when the event takes place over 28 – 30July 2023.

The purpose of GROW Rural CQ is to provide first-year medical, nursing, midwifery, dentistry, and allied health students with a unique experience to develop familiarity and a deeper understanding of the potential benefits of working in remote or rural Queensland. By cultivating strong connections with local health professionals and services, as well as the broader community, the GROW Rural CQ program encourages health students to return to remote and rural communities for their clinical placements and to consider remote and rural practice as a future career opportunity.

HWQ CEO, Chris Mitchell said, “it is wonderful to see this cohort of students complete the GROW Rural CQ program and we are hopeful these students become the future workforce within Central Queensland. I would like to recognise the amazing support from the local communities, health professionals as well as community and local industry. The individual growth of students and connection to Country has been incredible”.

During the 2023 GROW Rural CQ program, students will:

Be Welcomed onto Waja Country by Traditional Custodians
Conduct a Teddy Bear Hospital with the Year 3s at Woorabinda State School
Experience farm life with activities and an overnight stay at Myella Farm Stay
Be amazed by Moura’s Dawson Mine that will set the scene for the clinical skills sessions' scenario
Engage in clinical skills sessions facilitated by local allied health professionals
Celebrate with a graduation dinner and enjoy being billeted overnight with a local family
Conclude the event with a special cultural activity on Wulli Wulli Country outside of Theodore

GROW Rural student, Johanna Joyce, a third-year medical student from UQ, was so inspired by GROW Rural visits to Woorabinda she undertook a 6-week placement at Woorabinda Multipurpose Health Service earlier this year. Johanna describes the highlights of GROW Rural sharing, ‘’I love the opportunity the GROW Rural program offers to visit the same places each year. The connections to communities we make are able to be deepened, and it is wonderful to see changes and growth with every visit. I value sharing the experience with diverse student representatives from medical and allied health backgrounds, and I think we all thoroughly enjoy each year. One of the best highlights was attending the Theodore Rodeo in 2022 and staying with a homestay family."

GROW Rural CQ has received invaluable support from the local communities including, but not limited to, Myella Farm Stay, Anglo American, Indigenous Knowledge Centre, Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council, Ngurambang Cultural Education and Aboriginal Art, Mimosa Medical Clinic, Rural Health Management Services, Theodore Community Link, Theodore Medical Centre and Moura State High School. Health Workforce Queensland are very grateful for the support and assistance that these businesses and the communities have brought to the program.

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Contact

Corina Adams
Marketing & Communications Support Officer
P: 0414 427 950 | E: cadams@healthworkforce.com.au

About HWQ

Health Workforce Queensland is a not for profit, non-Government Rural Workforce Agency (RWA) for primary health workforce in Queensland, focused on making sure remote, rural, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities have access to highly skilled health professionals when and where they need them, now and into the future.

We have been responding to remote and rural health workforce challenges for over 20 years. We know that improving access to primary health care workforce and quality services will ensure sustainable and healthy remote and rural Queensland communities.

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