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Health offers a wide range of rewarding career opportunities, including medicine (becoming a doctor), nursing, physiotherapy, pharmacy, paramedicine, occupational therapy, midwifery, and many other professions.
Whether you’re interested in working in a rural hospital, general practice, aged care facility, ambulance service, or community-based setting, there are many ways to build a fulfilling career in health.
Choosing to work in a rural community can offer a unique and rewarding lifestyle. Rural health professionals often enjoy a broader scope of practice, strong professional relationships, and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the communities they serve. Living and working in a rural area also provides the benefits of close-knit communities, strong local connections, shorter commutes, and access to the outdoor lifestyle that many rural regions offer.
A career in rural health combines professional opportunities with the chance to contribute to the wellbeing of rural communities and help ensure they continue to have access to high-quality healthcare services.
There are many pathways into a career in rural health. The pathway you take will depend on your interests, strengths, and career goals.
Some of the health professions that play an important role in rural healthcare include:
To learn more about health careers, study requirements, training providers, and career opportunities, visit Tahutū Career Navigator, a comprehensive online resource designed to help New Zealand students explore their future career options. See https://tahatu.govt.nz/
Students interested in becoming rural doctors can access a number of rural training opportunities throughout their medical education and postgraduate training.
After completing Health Sciences First Year and gaining entry to medical school, students undertake their medical degree before completing postgraduate training as junior doctors. Those with an interest in rural practice can also participate in rural-focused training programmes along the way.
Two examples are the Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP) offered by the University of Otago and the Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP) offered by the University of Auckland. During their fifth year of medical school, students spend a year based in a rural community, gaining hands-on clinical experience in general practice, rural hospitals, and other community health settings. RMIP and RHIP have strong track records of encouraging graduates to pursue careers in rural medicine.
Following medical school and early postgraduate training, doctors who wish to become rural hospital doctors can apply for the Rural Hospital Medicine Training Programme, a specialist vocational training pathway leading to qualification as a rural hospital doctor.
The University of Waikato’s Graduate School of Medicine, opening in 2028, will also have a strong focus on rural and regional healthcare, with rural placements expected to form an important part of student training.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben is a fifth year medical student at the School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Taranaki Campus. He is an undergraduate student initially from Leeston, Canterbury. In 2018, Ben served as the President of Grassroots Rural Health Club at the University of Auckland, and co-founded Students of Rural Health Aotearoa (SoRHA), the first and only national interdisciplinary rural health student network. In 2019, he has served as an acting chair of SoRHA. He was also Vice-President External of the New Zealand Medical Students Association (NZMSA), and served on the organising committee for NZMSA Conference 2019: Empower. In his spare time (what spare time) he loves to tramp, travel and socialise with his mates.
New Zealand Medical Student Journal, November 2019
Ben Alsop-ten Hove
Debbie Hughes is a General Practitioner (GP) and Medical Director of Anamata CAFE (Clinics and Advice for Everyone), a youth one-stop shop health clinic that services the wider Taupō region. Established over 30 years ago, Anamata CAFE is a charitable trust employing 13 staff who are passionate about ensuring young people have easy access to health care providers and sexual health education, empowering them to make healthy and safe choices and transition successfully into adulthood. The authors sat down to chat with Debbie and her colleague Sue van Mierlo, a Nurse Practitioner, to discuss their career journey, what Anamata CAFE does, and the reality of youth and sexual health services in New Zealand (NZ).
New Zealand Medical School Journal, November 2019
Emily Yi, Tim Hall
INTRODUCTION: The health sector is facing considerable challenges to meet the health needs of rural communities. Nurse practitioners (NPs) deliver primary health care (PHC) services similar to general practitioner (GP) services, within a health equity and social justice paradigm. Despite GP workforce deficits, New Zealand has been slow to effectively utilise NPs.
Journal of Primary Healthcare, June 2019
Sue Adams, Jenny Carryer
