AMAV VICDOC Winter 2024 - Magazine - Page 64
WO R K I N G I N RU RA L
REG I ON A L V I CTO R IA
UNPACKING
BIASES
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Alex Ikanovic, President of the
Medical Student Council of Victoria,
explores and unpacks the typical
medical student’s biases about
working in rural and regional areas.
a medical school with a
A ttending
strong focus on rural and Indigenous
healthcare meant that the notion of
person-centred and public health
medicine were always front of mind.
However, I’ll confess that prior to
attending medical school, while I was across
my school’s mission statement and values,
a core part of me had reservations about
working regionally and in remote settings.
So, in typical ‘medical student fashion’, I
looked to the literature to cement my own
prejudices (confirmation bias, anyone?).
But instead, I was reassured by the
notion of ‘rural amenity’. It posits that
a location’s attractiveness comprises two
components – a tangible environment, and
a psychosocial one. And while COVID-19
may have contributed to the resurgence of
the Australian ‘sea-change’ sentiment,
64
discourse among my peers still frequently
cited more practical considerations when
discussing their apprehension around
transitioning rurally. Namely that, beyond
the supportive infrastructure for recreational
activities and work-life balance is a
scepticism for true employment prosperity.
For students, I believe this translates to a
misconception around vocational training
program viability which has failed to be
demystified during their tertiary education.
Even so, with scant data present in the
literature to support a correlative association
between the District of Workforce Shortage
(DWS) classification and rural amenity,
I believed that there still lay valuable
upstream determinants of workforce
retention – and therefore policy
development – which were being
sorely overlooked.
