General News
23 May, 2025
Council to continue to fund bush bursary medical students
Bogan Shire Council will again fund work placements of up to two medical, nursing or midwifery students at its medical centre, under the Bush Bursaries and Country Women’s Association Scholarships Program.
Councillors agreed to add $3000 to the 2025/2026 budget to continue the placement program which provides medical students with the opportunity to live and work in a rural centre.
Bogan Shire Council has participated in the program over the past three years, housing medical and nursing students for a two week period and giving them an insight into working at the medical centre and the Nyngan Multi-Purpose Health Centre.
The program aims to encourage graduate students to consider working in country areas where there is often a shortage of qualified medical professionals.
Director of People and Community Services, Debb Wood said the placement combined the enjoyable aspects of country life and rural medicine. “The two-week placements are usually undertaken in late November or early December.
Applicants must demonstrate an interest in rural practice and lifestyle; an understanding of the realities of rural medical practice; and be motivated to undertake a placement in a rural area as part of the scheme,” she said.
The Rural Doctors Network facilitates the program and selects suitable candidates for the scholarship which is part funded by the CWA.
Council provides accommodation and also arranges for the students to experience the region, for example by playing sport or attending events so they can grasp the spirit rural communities provide.
The students shadow staff at the medical centre and the hospital in consultations and during treatment. Students who have previously undertaken the program have given positive feedback regarding their experiences. Cindy Stewart and Berni Phillips were both part of the program in 2023.
Cindy was a first-year nursing student at Western Sydney University and Berni was a first year medicine student at the University of Wollongong.
The girls spent time at the medical centre with the doctors, sonographer, specialist nurses and allied health practitioners, physiotherapist and the podiatrist.
They also accompanied the doctor to visit residential aged care patients at the Nyngan Multipurpose Health Service.
Although both girls came from communities outside of Sydney – Cindy was from the Bega Valley and Berni from the Lower Blue Mountains – they were unsure of what to expect before arriving in Nyngan.
“I definitely didn’t go with a lot of confidence, because it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere,” Cindi said.
“But the locals were great and everyone is really friendly.”
Berni said the placement had helped re-enforce her intentions to follow a career in rural medicine.
“Besides our placement we looked around Nyngan and did everything we could. We went to the RSL, the Bowlo and met some locals so that was food fun,” she said.
“It was such a different experience from hospital placements I’ve had - being one on one with patients and getting to know them and how they’re going in the community. I enjoyed really getting to know a patient rather than the way it works in a hospital.”
“We were also able to follow along with each specialist including the GP, the sonographer and the physio, nurse, mental health nurse, and podiatrist.”
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