Three Rivers Pathways Co-Ordinator, Andrew O’Brien. left, with Country Education Foundation of Australia Partnerships Manager, Hilary Matchett, right, and a group of CEF-supported students studying health at Charles Sturt University, at its Bathurst campus.
Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEF) education partner Charles Sturt University’s Three Rivers Department of Rural Health says it is striving to achieve better health outcomes in regional NSW through its scholarship programs.
National Scholarship Partner: Charles Sturt University Three Rivers Department of Rural Health
Partner since: 2019
Number of students supported: 151
Total grant funding: $248,000
Three Rivers DRH is a department of Charles Sturt University that promotes its health profession degrees, focussing on supporting the recruitment and retention of nursing, midwifery, allied health and dentistry rural health professionals to improve the health of rural communities.
It’s end goal is to boost the number of health workers living and working in regional NSW by encouraging its students to remain living there after they’ve graduated, keeping their critical health skills in the regions and benefiting their communities as a consequence.
As part of its commitment to rural health Three Rivers DRH offers numerous scholarships, including some that are exclusive to CEF supported students through CEF’s national scholarship program, ‘CEF Extra‘.
Known as the Three Rivers – CEF Scholarships, funding is offered to students who are studying in a health-related field at Charles Sturt University, who are from locations within Three Rivers’ strategic footprint and where there is a local CEF foundation. Its footprint includes most locations between Dubbo and Albury.
Three Rivers Pathways Co-Ordinator, Andrew O’Brien, said all scholarships on offer were designed for “aspiration building” and supported through funding by the Australian Government’s Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program.
We’re trying to improve the recruitment and retention of dental, nursing and allied health professionals in regional NSW.
– Three Rivers Pathways Co-Ordinator, Andrew O’Brien
Three Rivers also offers support for students on practical placements, offering some financial support as well as accommodation support in locations where it has it available to ensure high quality clinical training for health students.
It also facilitates a student-led club called ‘Rural Health Positive’ and other engagement programs.
Next year it will be targeting the Forbes, Parkes and Lachlan local government areas of western NSW, having recognised a need for more health skills in these areas.
It will be launching a new scholarship program targeted at students from these areas studying health, with both school leavers and non-school leavers eligible to apply for one of 3 x $20,000 scholarships on offer.
This will be in addition to other scholarship programs it offers, ‘Continuing’ and ‘Commencing’ Allied Health Scholarships, with a collective amount of $40,000 in funding available.
