Informing rural and remote students about careers in health: the effect of Health Careers Workshops on course selection.

Objective: Since 1994, as part of the Health Careers in the Bush program, Queensland Health has run residential workshops to provide secondary school students from rural and remote areas with information about health careers. This study reports on the influence of the program on tertiary course selection.

Design: Self-administered mail survey and telephone interviews.

Setting: Secondary schools.

Participants: Past students who had in year 10 attended residential career workshops run by Queensland Health.

Main Outcome Measures: Tertiary courses; self-reported influence of the workshop program on raising awareness and course selection.

Results: Over 90% of participants reported that the workshops had a major impact on their course and career selection. The workshops provided exposure to a wide variety of health-related disciplines, enabling students to be better informed about their course and career plans within the industry. Half of the students changed their course as a result of attending a workshop, and 83% enrolled in a health-related course. The 17% who did not enrol in a health-related course also recognised the value of the workshop program.

Conclusion: The workshop program raised awareness of health professions and offered valuable information to rural students about a wide range of health careers. Results suggest that provision of such information in a residential-workshop format contributed significantly to tertiary course selection of rural and remote students. The benefit to the health industry from these workshops has been substantial in relation to the small amount of funds invested.