28 September 2020
First students complete rural medical studies in Ashburton
The four medical students who have completed their fifth year of studies in the Rural Medical Immersion Programme in Ashburton and their tutor. From left, Holly Barclay, Jack Sinclair, Janine Lander (tutor), James Jin and Kieren Deng
Ashburton Hospital has hosted its first students to complete studies through the Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP). The RMIP aims to provide an innovative, patient-centred, rural community-based and educationally-sound full-year rural medical programme. It arose through the vision of the late Wakatipu General Practitioner (GP) Pat Farry as a means of encouraging students to pursue careers in rural health and build and strengthen the relationship between rural health professionals and their communities. The students – Sangjun Jin (James), Kieren Deng, Holly Barclay and Jack Sinclair – are all fifth-year students of the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) programme through the University of Otago.
Ashburton’s RMIP started in February this year with doctors Alex Ferberwee and Janine Lander sharing the teaching and coordination of the programme from the Rural Health Academic Centre Ashburton (RHACA). The students have participated in caring for maternity and hospital patients, following them through to Christchurch Hospital where required. They have spent half their time in local general practices and undertaken shifts with the ski doctors at Mt Hutt Medical Centre. They have also experienced regular simulation-based teaching and skills training alongside Ashburton Hospital’s junior doctors in the RHACA simulation suite which opened late last year. James says he chose to participate in the RMIP because he wanted to understand the full picture of the health system and the journey a patient goes through.
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