A 23-year-old described her journey of becoming a midwife in rural South Australia as 'a magical experience', where she made meaningful connections and changed lives. Taryn Gartner, a midwife at Mount Gambier District Health Service, described her job as a ...
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Study reveals ‘decades’ of maternity care access issues for women in rural areas
Women from disadvantaged backgrounds in rural Australia are facing significant barriers to accessing quality maternity care, new research shows. A recent study from Victoria's La Trobe University found women living in remote areas are to be at a far higher ...
More »NSW emergency wait times skyrocket
Over thirty per cent of NSW residents are waiting over four hours for emergency medical treatment, new figures have shown, as a combination of worker shortages and rising flu cases take a toll on state hospitals. A NSW health department ...
More »NSW rural healthcare inquiry gives scathing review
Nurses have condemned the "shocking" findings of a NSW report which highlighted chronic understaffing, lack of access to services and discrimination in regional, rural and remote healthcare. This week, the state government published its report into rural health access in ...
More »Government announces long term health blueprint, Medicare priorities
The government has released Australia’s Long-Term National Health Plan, promising to make the health system “the world’s number one”. “The story of health in Australia is sometimes viewed through the prism of large numbers, such as $435 billion for the ...
More »Safe as houses? Mitigating the risks for children living on a rural property
In the emergency department, the ‘bat phone’ is reserved for urgent referrals of incoming patients. One busy afternoon, the bat phone rang to advise that a four-year-old boy had fallen off a motorbike.* He'd ridden over a river bank and ...
More »Remote incentives for nurses
There is a desperate need for nurses in rural areas, but there’s also a great sense of potential for the nurses who do relocate. By Flynn Murphy I was at Royal Hobart, and I’d been there for 15 months,” recalls ...
More »Students want mental health training
A national peak body representing rural health students has outlined an action plan for the future of rural health in Australia. Rural health students have called for mental health training to be made a compulsory part of undergraduate health education. ...
More »Moves to extend HECS relief to nurses
The federal Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek says she will investigate calls by the National Rural Health Students’ Network for nurses and allied health professionals to be included in the HECS reimbursement scheme. The federal government will investigate an expansion ...
More »Shifting the balance of power
The health debate must be shifted away from "hot button issues" such as hospital beds to longer-term issues. Improving Australia's health care sector - particularly rural health - will not be achieved by more doctors or more money. And it ...
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