Summer Scholarships
Description of using summer scholarships as a recruitment and retention strategy.
Overview
Exposure to rural areas while studying can increase the likelihood of choosing a rural location for professional practice. Even more than that, rural professionals will often choose the exact location where they had student experiences. Locations should therefore try to attract students to visit. One way of doing this is to establish short term summer jobs or scholarships which involve some mix of project work (often research) and clinical exposure. Scholarships provide living expenses and a small salary for 6 or 8 weeks.
How to Implement
Success Factors
Scholarships need some level of cooperation between the hosting community (the health service, school, municipality who will supervise the student) and the student’s home university (Zorzi et al., 2005). Scholarships work best when there is some formal recognition of their value by the university. Scholarships work best if there are multiple people in the rural location who share the task of supervising the student. Attention should also be paid to engaging the student in the social life of the location.
Challenges
For ‘hands on’ professions such as health and education, it may be difficult to provide interesting practical experiences during summer holiday periods because the host practitioners are on leave, or schools or particular health programs are closed. ‘Clinical exposure’ also needs to consider the preparedness of the student and host to undertake practical work.
Evidence Base
Zorzi A, Rourke J, Kennard M, Peterson M, Miller K. Combined research and clinical learning make rural summer studentship program a successful model. Rural and Remote Health(Internet) 2005; 5: 401. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=401
Connected to the following framework elements
- Emphasise information sharing
- Community engagement
- Training future professionals