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A study examined rural activities and curriculum content in Adelaide University Medical School (South Australia). A survey of all department heads found significant increases from 1994 to 2000 in students with rural backgrounds, weeks available for rural placements, and departments offering rural placements. Academic support to rural practitioners improved, and many departments directly provided services in rural and Aboriginal communities. (Contains 35 references.) (TD)

Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarships (RAMUS) provide$10 000 per annum to selected medical students with a rural background. Eligibility criteria include having lived in a rural community for five consecutive or eight cumulative years. We sought to validate the above-specified criterion using data from the Australian National Rural Background Study.National case control study stratified by jurisdiction.Two thousand four hundred and fourteen Australian-trained rural and urban general practitioners (GPs).Whether the RAMUS rural background criterion was met or not.Doctors who met the RAMUS rural background criterion were more likely to be in rural practice (odds ratio = 2.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.97–3.18) than those who did not. This was true for all jurisdictions (except for the Northern Territory) and ranged from 1.95 for South Australia to 3.57 for Victoria.Rural GPs are more likely to fulfil the RAMUS rural background criterion, supporting the existence of the RAMUS scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the federal government policy interventions to curb the rural workforce shortage of doctors, nurses and allied health workers in Australia. Establishment of a national rural academic network; Facilitation of bonded scholarship schemes; Encouragement of students with a rural background into medical school.