There has been an international trend in medical education towards rural experiences for medical students (1-3). In 2007 the Ministry of Health (4) supported the development and piloting of a Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP). Te Waipounamu Rural Health Unit at the Dunedin School of Medicine developed a pilot programme in 2007 for six medical students to spend the 5th year of their undergraduate clinical training based in a rural setting (the pilot sites were Queenstown and Greymouth).

An external evaluation was conducted by Paul Worley and Lucie Walter.

A summer studentship funded by the MCNZ  was conducted by senior medical student Rebecca Tordoff in  2008, comparing the experiences between the rural and hospital based students.

In 2008 12 year 5 students, four from each campus, have embarked on a rural immersion year. The programme is expected to be available for 20 year 5 students in 2009, and it is anticipated it will remain at 20 students each year in the future.

References
1. Worley P, Esterman A, Prideaux D. Cohort study of examination
performance of undergraduate medical students learning in community settings. BMJ. 2004;328(7433):207-9.
2. Lang F, Ferguson KP, Bennard B, Zahorik P, Sliger C. The Appalachian
Preceptorship: Over Two Decades of an Integrated Clinical–Classroom Experience of Rural Medicine and Appalachian Culture. Academic Medicine.
2005;80(8).
3. Tesson G, Curran V, Pong RW, Strasser R. Advances in rural medical
education in three countries: Canada, The United States and Australia.
Rural and remote health. 2005;5:397.
4. O'Conner D. First ever Rural Medical Immersion Programme. 2007 [updated
2007; cited 2008 14/04/08]; Available from:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/first+ever+rural+medical+immersion+programme.