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(07) 3105 7800
Turrbal and Jagera Country
Level 4, 348 Edward Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
Welcome to the Health Workforce Queensland Student Hub!
If you’re the type of health student who values learning, then you’re in the right place.
Click on the tiles below, or scroll down, to view resources provided by health professionals who understand the importance of cutting to the chase.
If you have the opportunity, or burning desire, to go on rural placement, we’ve added contact details of facilities that offer student placements.
Be sure to revisit the Hub regularly to check out what new resources have been added.
And if you come across a ‘must have’ resource, feel free to share it with us by email.
Rural Health Clubs
BUSHFIRE(Bond University Society of Health for Indigenous and Rural Experience) serving Bond University, is a student-led club which aims to provide students opportunities to gain exposure to rural & Indigenous health, upskill, & network with a variety of insightful and capable health professionals who dedicate their work to these regions.
Club RHINO(Rural Health in the Northern Outback) at James Cook University (JCU) aims to inspire health students to serve Australia's diverse rural populations and foster a love for the unique natural landscapes in which they learn and practice. The club offers a variety of academic, cultural, sporting, and social events, showcasing the benefits of rural work while having fun. Connect with us on our social pages or meet our friendly members to learn more!
Hope4Health serving Griffith Uni and UniSC. Our club organises local, rural, indigenous, and international awareness, and fundraising activities including major corporate events, guest speaker seminars, rural clinical skills trips, rural high school visits, teddy bear hospitals, and much more.
TROHPIQ(Towards Rural and Outback Health Professionals in Queensland) is south east Queensland’s rural health club dedicated to helping medical, nursing, dentistry and allied health students experience the unique career and lifestyle opportunities to be found in regional, rural, and remote medicine. The club serves students at UQ, QUT, ACU, USQ, and CQU with social events, scholarships, seminars, and training days.
Workplace Sexual Harassment
Victoria Lister’s PhD research aims to understand the forces that prevent medical professionals from speaking up at work. Explore Victoria's webpage to delve into her findings.
Read this interesting article on the prevalence of workplace sexual misconduct - Health complaints: Watchdog monitoring health practitioners inundated with complaints, majority sexual misconduct allegations (smh.com.au)
This qualitative study by Dr Louise Stone aimed to identify, using personal accounts, the impact on doctors of sexual harassment and assault by doctors in the workplace.
Explore the Door Directory, a resource offering insights and pathways for reporting harassment in medicine.
The Respect@Work website brings together a comprehensive set of resources to support individuals and organisations to better understand, prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. On the website, you will find information, videos, advice, good practice guides, education and training programs, and workplace assessment tools.
The Polyvagal Theory offers precise science to understanding how the vagus nerve, one part of this system, which connects the brain, to the heart, to the viscera (the organs of the belly), relates to our human ability to connect and communicate with each other. This chart shows the key indicators of the Autonomic Nervous System.
Surviving in Scrubs is a website dedicated to sharing lived experience stories of sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. (Content warning)
Personal Support:
Hand-n-Hand Peer Support - for all health professions.
Doctors' Health in Queensland - support service for doctors and medical students.
For confidential support or guidance relating to workplace sexual misconduct and harassment, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Stephanie Pommerel at hello@drstephaniepommerel.com. All conversations with Stephanie will be conducted respectfully and with discretion.
Under the Influence - Dealing with Dependency
Queensland Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (QNADA)
Qld Alcohol and Other Drug Testing Service Delivery Framework: This framework outlines principles for delivering effective alcohol and drug treatment services in Queensland. It guides service providers, professionals, and stakeholders in providing holistic and evidence-based care.
Getting Started in the AOD Sector (learning guide): A guide for newcomers to the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) sector, covering history, terminology, services, and interventions to navigate the field effectively.
Language Mattersoffers respectful language guidelines to discuss substance use and addiction, promoting empathy and reducing stigma. It provides alternative phrasing and person-first language suggestions.
Four Corners Episode - Breaking the Cycle: The Children of Australia's Meth Crisis. Australia is currently facing a decade-long rise in ice addiction, setting it apart from most countries globally; this has led to countless Australian newborns being born annually with exposure to their mother's drug use.
Sober in the Country Ltd (SITC): A decade ago, SITC founder Shanna Whan envisioned rural Australians sharing stories to conquer alcohol harm or addiction, fostering healthier lives.
It's the realisation of Shanna's dream – a mosaic of rural voices, amplifying truth, hope, and connections.
Meet Part 1: Danielle, husband Leon, and their family – a powerful tale.Hugh Dawson knows how to work and play hard and has done plenty of both during his stints as a top-end ringer. These days he's doing some study at Marcus Oldham College, and he's learning a few other things along the way, too. In the episode of SITC's, Hughey shares why, these days, he's happier without the hangover.
Sober In The Country Instagram. #OK2SAYNO.
Podcast of GRV speaker; Associate Professor, Chris Fleming. A memoir on drugs and addiction. Meet an Australian philosopher and cultural analyst who spent 20 years of his life addicted to just about every drug you could imagine. His best work was done when he was enveloped in a haze of cannabis smoke, he prowled local pharmacies to score large doses of codeine and drank until he lost consciousness. Amazingly he lives to eloquently share his insights into the thought processes of an addict.
On Drugs, Chris Fleming: On Drugs explores philosopher Chris Fleming’s experience of addiction, which begins when he is a student and escalates into a life-threatening compulsion.
Michael Short - In A Bubble Bath: Michael Short reveals the unfiltered reality of his struggle with prescription medication addiction. He opens up about his journey, discussing the challenges he faced in battling this addiction and the impact on his mental health, as well as his relationships with family and friends.
Disability Awareness
In conjunction with our latest instalment of Go Rural Virtually - Closing the Disability Divide, we have gathered some informative and valuable resource links we think will greatly benefit you in your health career, and serve as a valuable addition to your knowledge base.
Emergency doctor Dinesh Palipana has a unique perspective on what hospitals are like for patients after he spent months in hospital with a spinal cord injury. See him interviewed here in this ABC News story by Kurt Fearnley.
Take a look at CheckUPs webpage, Access for All: Disability Awareness for Mainstream Health Providers. The goal of this initiative is to encourage and motivate a change in how mainstream healthcare services are delivered in regional, rural, and remote areas of Queensland.
Access for All – Tools for improving the accessibility of health services contains a collection of resources to help improve the accessibility of health services for people with disability.
Access for All – Disability awareness and accessibility resources and readings is a great information library for you to explore.
Access for All has created a free, interactive, two-hour online training course suitable for all mainstream health service staff. Click here to read more and register!
Rural Placements
Considering, or going on a rural placement? Check out these links to some great resources to help prepare you:
Develop your own pre-placement checklist using this Rural Placements Guide created by the National Rural Health Students Network.
Placement Experiences
Interested in undertaking a placement in an Aboriginal Health Service? This clip targets GP Registrars but is relevant to anyone. View it here!
UQ Speech Pathology student Madi shares why her Mt Isa placement experience was so rewarding.
Discover why UQ Master of Dietetics student, Bronte Young found Going Rural so valuable for her study and career.
UQ Nursing student Cate was fortunate enough to experience a fantastic placement with the RFDS in Townsville.
Gain some insight into the Indigenous Community of Yarrabah where Go Rural Virtually speaker Joanne gained a job at an Aboriginal community-controlled health service, Gurriny Yealamucka after completing a placement. Visit Gurriny Yealamucka to get an inside view of an Aboriginal community-controlled health service. See how a visit from the South Sydney Rabbitohs brought the community of Yarrabah together for a day of culture and fun in Yarns in Yarrabah!
Placement Locations
Murtupuni Centre for Rural and Remote Health – Student Placement Opportunities
Free accommodation (fully self-contained, internet, study desk in each room, washing machines etc.); Community Engagement; Face to face Cultural Awareness training for all students; Pastoral support; Interprofessional and simulation learning sessions; Diverse learning opportunities; Interested and available clinical supervisors; Library and computer access; Large footprint (varied opportunity for placement); Large range of disciplines and universities; Minimum of 2-week placements (longer is better!); and range of events to be involved in: rodeos, races, camp drafts, music events, national parks, agricultural shows, family fun days, etc
Email Contacts: Mount Isa; Longreach; Weipa
Listed below are rural locations you may like to consider for future placements. Each of these locations are student-friendly and would welcome your enquiries:
Scholarships and Bursaries
Looking for some financial assistance for your rural placement? You may be eligible to apply for one of the following:
CRANAplus offers the following scholarships:
Undergraduate Remote Placement Scholarship – offering a $1000 reimbursement.
Southern Queensland Rural Health (SQRH)offers a $1000 clinical placement bursary for UQ and USQ nursing, midwifery, and allied health students to MM4-7 locations. Student support and accommodation in some locations are also offered.
The University of Sunshine Coast (UniSC) offers a $2500 scholarship to third-year Nursing/Midwifery students, the Helen Hall Rural and Remote Nursing Bursary. For Fraser Coast campus only, the Lucy Harris Bursary is for second or third-year nursing students.
University of Southern Queensland (USQ) offers a nursing and midwifery clinical placement bursary providing up to $750 for USQ students.
Mental Health in the Bush
Have you seen our Go Rural Virtually event on this topic? Visit the link to listen to health professionals talk with students about this topical issue.
Below is information on how to support your own, and others, wellbeing.
Mental Health – Clinical Resources
Head to Health brings together apps, online programs, online forums, and phone services, as well as a range of digital information resources. Head to Health can help you find digital mental health services from some of Australia’s most trusted mental health organisations.
The Healthy Mind Platter recommends seven daily activities of “mental nutrients” that your brain and relationships need to function at their best.
What is human flourishing and what enables it? Visit the PERMA theory of well-being page to find out. There are five building blocks that enable flourishing -Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (hence PERMA™) – and there are techniques to increase each.
Phoenix Australia offers training and support to mental health professionals who are working with patients on a recovery journey. tri
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Mental Health – Organisations That Work in the Bush
Outback Futures applies a long-term, strategic approach to facilitate intergenerational change in suicide prevention and mental health outcomes for remote communities.
Rural Health Connect provides online access to mental wellbeing by linking rural community members to psychologists through video and phone calls.
The RFDS (Queensland Section) delivers more than 12,100 mental health consultations annually and has the largest mental health service of RFDS sections across Australia.
The RFDS Mental Health and Wellbeing Service is comprised of several specialised teams which provide psychological therapies and tailored programs for rural and remote Queenslanders.
Indigenous Mental Health
Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practiceis an awesome book (that can be freely downloaded) and is an important contribution to improve the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Menzies School of Health Research provides useful downloadable resources for Indigenous mental health and wellbeing.
Self-Care – An Essential Skill For Us All
Sane Australia provides a range of valuable resources including counselling support, peer support, plus information and skills to respond to mental health issues in the workplace.
The Bush Support Lineis a free, confidential, 24/7 telephone support line with an experienced psychologist for the current and emerging rural and remote health workforce, and their families.
Kindness - the key to a better world!
The Smiling Mind provides accessible, life-long tools to support healthy minds.
Self-Care Inventory – rate yourself!
Know when to jump out of hot water - Top Tips for Avoiding Boiling Frog Syndrome.
The Black Dog Institute provides a range of mental health resources and support tools.
My Compass- a personalised self-help tool for your mental health.
Aggression and Violence in Health Care
Recently, our event, Go Rural Virtually explored this important issue, watch the recordingto see the online discussions with health professionals and students.
The Wicked Problem of Violence in Health Care is an insightful article written by JCU researcher and PhD student, Alycia Jacob.
Read this interesting article which illustrates the complexity of understanding and managing violent behaviour in health care.
Violence against healthcare is a link to a FREE online course that is offered by the University of Geneva about violence in healthcare and healthcare provision in situations of danger/conflict.
Watch this Australian Story episode to learn why Gayle’s Law was put into place to protect remote area health staff during after-hours call-outs.
Listen to this insightful discussion regarding what can be done when violence intersects with the below frontline hospital staff:
Lita Olsson, Queensland Occupational Violence Strategy Unit Clinical Lead, Queensland Health
Danielle Austin, Incident Response and Disaster Manager, St Vincent’s Hospital Darlinghurst
Gerard Hayes, Secretary, Health Services Union (NSW, ACT, QLD)
Read this journal article that looks into workplace violence from the perspective of emergency department nurses.
This journal article scopes workforce safety in the remote health sector of Australia.
