The region’s Primary Health Network is seeking to improve Indigenous health and rural and remote health services with a number of internships and scholarships.
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Murray PHN is seeking to recruit three Aboriginal Access Advisor Interns to help improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The paid internships will be based in Bendigo, Mildura and Shepparton, with scope for a fourth in Albury.
Improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health was one of Murray PHN’s key priorities, chair Fabian Reid said.
“We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience a burden of disease two-and-a-half times that of other Australians,” he said.
Applicants must be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people and have a degree in a health-related field, business or Aboriginal affairs and/or more than two years’ relevant experience.
Murray PHN has also awarded 22 scholarships to nurses in six of the region’s health services to improve their capacity to provide urgent and primary care in rural and remote health services.
The recipients are based at Castlemaine Health, Heathcote Health, Boort District Health, Cobram District Health, Numurkah District Health Service, and Rochester and Elmore District Health Service.
“We know many of our rural health services rely heavily on general practitioners to provide services for urgent care. However doctors aren’t always available when a patient arrives,” Murray PHN chief executive Matt Jones said.
“In many rural communities, pharmacies are not open on weekends or outside of business hours - or there may not be a pharmacy at all.
“Nurses who undertake additional training can provide a wider range of primary care and emergency services to ensure people get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”
The Primary Health Network is investing more than $170,000 in the RIPERN (rural and isolated practice endorsed registered nurses) Scholarships Grants.
For more information about both initiatives, visit murrayphn.org.au.