These concepts introduce students to some of the positive and negative aspects of rural practice, as well as opportunities for rural practitioners to have a diverse practice, to become involved in all aspects of health and to initiate change. They provide an understanding of rurality from which health students can learn from their practical experiences during rural placements.

Adequate resourcing of placements of a meaningful duration, stronger institutional support, and improved resourcing of regional accommodation is required to facilitate a larger, more systematic and sustainable system of medical and health student placements in rural areas.

Objective:To assess the extent of undergraduate health student placements in regional hospitals in northern Victoria in 1999, prior to substantial changes in rural undergraduate medical education in Australia. Method: Cross sectional postal survey with telephone follow-up in north-east Victoria. Subjects were all 17 regional and rural hospitals involved in health student teaching in North-east Victoria. Main outcome measures were the numbers, duration and discipline of health students placements and reported barriers to such placements. Results: Large regional hospitals accounted for two-thirds of all undergraduate health student placements. Smaller sites placed few allied health students. Barriers to a larger, more sustainable system of rural placements and rotations included accommodation shortages and funding constraints, particularly in smaller rural hospitals. Conclusions: Adequate resourcing of placements of a meaningful duration, stronger institutional support, and improved resourcing of regional accommodation is required to facilitate a larger, more systematic and sustainable system of medical and health student placements in rural areas.

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