Evaluation of the health careers in the Bush Health Careers Workshops 1994 - 2002

Abstract

[Summary]: Seventy people from rural backgrounds, who as secondary school students had attended a Year 10 Health Careers Workshop between 1995 and 1999, were interviewed by telephone in 2004 to determine what impact the workshop attendance had on their course and career choices. Approximately one quarter of the participants had also attended a Year 12 workshop. Results from two written questionnaires administered in 2002 and 2005 and from the telephone interviews showed that workshop attendance consolidated career interest in the health industry. At the end of 2004 over 90% of respondents were either employed in the health industry or studying to do so. Students who applied to attend a Year 10 workshop had expressed interest at that time of pursuing a health professional career such as nursing, medicine or physiotherapy. The workshops provided exposure to the variety of additional health related disciplines and some students used this information to modify their course and career plans within the industry. Even those who did not subsequently enrol in a health related course recognised the value of the workshop program. In fact without a single exception interviewees found the workshops to be extremely rewarding. The vast majority indicated that attendance had a major impact on their course and career decisions. A significant number of workshop participants have subsequently guided others in their course choice and career decisions. The majority of the participants who had left their rural communities to complete tertiary education will provide rural and regional health care as they have either returned and are working in rural or regional areas or intend doing so in the future. As a result of the selection process for workshop attendance, the study could not demonstrate definitively that the Health Careers Workshops Program contributed to the recruitment of health professionals. However, it has shown that the Program contributed significantly not only to the retention of those interested in the health industry but to the return of trained health professionals to rural and regional areas. The benefit to the health industry from these workshops has been substantial in relation to the small amount of funds invested.