Rural Workforce Agencies in every Australian state and the Northern Territory work with rural and remote communities to support quality, sustained health care.
Each RWA supports GPs, nursing, midwifery and allied health specialists, to make the transition to country practice. We deliver a range of Commonwealth-funded programs, grants and subsidies. We also offer a variety of professional development programs and events, plus wellbeing and social initiatives to value-add to a successful and rewarding life in Australia’s beautiful regions. Full offerings are available on each RWA website.
Programs
Rural Health Workforce Support Activity (RHWSA)
The aim of the RHWSA is to improve the capacity, quality, distribution and mix of the health workforce to better meet current and future needs of rural and remote communities.
In each State and Territory, Rural Workforce Agencies identify priorities through an annual Health Workforce Needs Assessment, supplemented by ongoing workforce planning and engagement at a local level. Tailor-made solutions are implemented to support communities to access the services they need, which can include:
- Career promotion for interested undergraduates and early career health professionals
- Practice support to build the viability and sustainability of the service
- Localised workforce planning to ensure an appropriate mix of professionals
- Recruitment – including orientation and induction and case management of the individual and their family to settle and thrive in the community
- Training and development to meet professional standards and community need
- Community engagement and co-designing of new models to ensure continuity of service in times of transition
Health Workforce Scholarships Program (HWSP)
The Health Workforce Scholarship Program (HWSP) provides scholarships and bursaries to help health professionals in rural and remote Australia retain and enhance their skills, capacity and scope of practice.
The HWSP is available to medical, nursing, midwifery, allied health, dental and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals providing primary health care in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) sector, non-government organisations and private practice.
The HWSP has been designed to address the priority health needs of communities by funding the training and upskilling activities of rural health practitioners across Australia.
The Program is an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health, administered as a consortium by the Rural Workforce Agencies. Each state or territory is guided by its Health Workforce Needs Assessments and any other available jurisdictional data to determine the priority professions and/or fields of study it will fund and manages its own funding applications.
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