The students, who are all studying medicine as a post-graduate degree, will join with undergraduate students from Monash University at Bendigo Health for their first year of study in a clinical environment.

The students are now in their foundation term, during which they go through orientation and refine their basic clinical skills.

Once this term is finished in about two weeks, they will spend the rest of the year rotating through four fields – surgical, medical, specialist and ambulatory care – giving them a taste of various aspects of the profession.

Associate Professor Leslie Fisher, a gastroenterologist and the deputy director of medical education for the university’s Rural Clinical School, said this coming year of the students’ studies gave them the opportunity to apply their knowledge to practical situations involving patients, to develop what is known as clinical reasoning.

Associate Professor Fisher said it was hoped that by exposing the students to life in Bendigo, they would be more likely to return to the area to work in the future.

Outside the hospital students were also encouraged to pursue interests such as sport and music, he said, which would help them make connections that might help in drawing them back to the region to work someday.

But working in a regional centre like Bendigo not only offers possible opportunities for the community, it also presents benefits for the students.

Associate Professor Fisher said a regional hospital gave students more opportunities to engage in hands-on learning.

He explained that if they were, for example, in the operating theatre, they were more likely to be able to learn close-up than simply being one of a number of students watching on, as they might in a larger hospital.

“They certainly get more access to patients,” Associate Professor Fisher said.

They also attend tutorials during their time in Bendigo.

Associate Professor Fisher said the students would begin their patient contact with such tasks as learning to take histories and undertaking examinations, and would progress as they built on their skills and knowledge.

He said the students were “pretty keen” to begin working with patients.

Bendigo is one of four locations at which the Rural Clinical School is located, with the University of Melbourne students studying a blended curriculum with Monash University.

The Rural Clinical School is based at Shepparton, with other branches in Ballarat and Wangaratta.