Making a difference to underserved communities

JCU attracts undergraduate students from rural, regional and remote areas, or those who have an interest in working in these regions.  68% of domestic first-year medical student cohort in 2023 came from a regional or remote area (MMM2-7).

JCU's undergraduate medicine, pharmacy and dentistry students have a positive rural experience throughout their degree, seeing first-hand the implications of the lack of healthcare services in regional, rural and remote communities.

JCU’s medicine, dentistry and pharmacy undergraduate degrees instill a passion for health equality and focus on making an impact in underserved communities. Students explore health issues of concern to these communities.

Students undertake a high number of clinical placements in regional, rural and remote Australia and benefit from a wide breadth of experience where they develop a strong level of clinical skills. Medicine students will undertake over 3,300 hours of clinical placements, dentistry undertake over 2,000 hours of placement, and pharmacy students undertake over 640 hours of placement during their respective degrees. It is these experiences that ensure they are well equipped when they graduate to work in regional, rural and remote communities and beyond.

By selecting students from a regional, rural remote background or who have a passion for working in these regions, and through ensuring students have a positive rural experience, JCU’s graduate doctors, dentists and pharmacists are more likely to stay in or return to regional, rural and remote communities.

Between 2005 and 2023, JCU has produced over 2,500 medical graduates with around 66% of medicine graduates staying in the JCU region following graduation (AHPRA Data 1 Oct 2021).

JCU has partnered with northern Queensland Hospital and Health Services and other health care providers to map specialty training pathways for doctors from intern to registrar in the northern Queensland region. The initiative is known as Northern Queensland Regional Training Hubs (NQRTH) and it is helping bolster the specialist workforce for  communities across northern Queensland.

NQRTH’s vision is to improve the health of our rural, regional and remote communities by addressing the shortage of doctors in the region. NQRTH is working to achieve this through building an integrated pipeline of medical training across the training continuum that produces a high quality, self-sustaining medical workforce that is responsive to the health needs of northern Queensland.

JCU is working with communities to address the disparity in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with a key focus on improving the provision of culturally appropriate clinical practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Through the right education experience, JCU is ensuring that we deliver health professionals that are well equipped to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to improve the overall health of their communities.

JCU also has a focus on recruiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into the health disciplines, with tertiary pathways aimed specifically at assisting students from Indigenous backgrounds into health courses.

A key focus of JCU’s research is applied and translational research with impact across health and health services in tropical, Indigenous, rural and underserved communities.

JCU’s research emphasises working ‘in-with-and-for’ communities across northern Australia and the wider tropics. JCU seeks to translate knowledge, strengthen health systems and address health issues that affect the region.

Research covers a diverse range of topics that effect regional, rural, remote and tropical communities including peripheral vascular disease, endocrinology and diabetes, trauma care, health systems strengthening, and Indigenous health.

Find out more about JCU’s research in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy.