Outreach Student Placement Program

About the program 

The Outreach Student Placement Program (OSPP) provides selected medical, nursing and allied health students in NSW/ACT with the opportunity to shadow an Outreach provider in a rural or remote community. Available Outreach providers include GPs, physiotherapists, nurses, optometrists and many more across other disciplines. All travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered for these placements.

Placement locations and durations may differ each year due to the involvement of different Outreach providers. 

Applicants must demonstrate:

• an interest in rural practice and lifestyle;
• an understanding of the realities of rural health; and
• the motivation to undertake a placement in a rural area as part of the scheme.

Students not honouring their commitment to undertake a rural placement are required to pay back all money granted for the placement.

For further information, please see our Program Guidelines.

Who is eligible?

Rural and urban students are eligible to apply for the program.

Applicants must:

• be Australian or New Zealand citizens or permanent or temporary residents of Australia
• have completed all university study requirements at the time of application and demonstrate this by provision of proof of enrolment
• be a medical, nursing or allied health student studying in NSW/ACT or have completed Year 12 in a NSW/ACT high school
• be able to complete the placement before 30 June 2024

Applications

Applications to participate in the 2024 Outreach Student Placement Program have now closed, and we are expecting our next round of placements to begin in early 2025. Please sign up to our newsletter below to be notified when applications open again.

To get an idea of the placements that were available through the program in the first half of 2024, please see this list.

Testimonial

The following testimonial comes from Ben Smith and Maddy Tilyou who were scholarship recipients placed at Bourke and Brewarrina in 2023:

"This RDN Outreach program has been an absolute blast, but more importantly it has affirmed my desire to practice rurally one day. I left Bourke feeling not only inspired about outback health care, but about what it means to be a doctor. 

"The variety of patients and the opportunity to really connect with them through our time was really special, you felt really valued and appreciated by the communities. 

"Both Katrina and Kyriacos were the most incredible people and clinicians. We truly felt so welcome and they were so, so happy to have us.

"From the second we landed, the welcome from the community was incredible. It was obvious that Kyri and Katerina have developed long-term and meaningful relationships with a large portion of the community.”

•  Read more about Ben and Maddy's placement.

Find out more 

Email students@nswrdn.com.au if you would like any more help learning about the exciting opportunities of a rural health career.

Subscribe here to receive scholarship information, RDN updates and information about opportunities to experience rural health: