As those living in regional communities know well, it’s often been a challenge to fill healthcare roles out of our major cities.

“The impact of COVID is that we’re seeing job seekers increasingly put lifestyle first, which in many cases means a sea or tree change,” says Samantha Miklos, founder and CEO of Cornerstone Medical Recruitment.

Cornerstone has seen huge growth in placements of people in regional jobs across the health sector, with the highest demand for hospital doctors and nurses, GPs, physios and speech pathologists. They’ve also noticed savvy Millennials are realising the benefits of working rurally.

“As well as providing a genuine impact on the wellbeing of a local community, regional placements – particularly for those just starting out in their careers – fast-track career opportunities by offering a more generalist clinical opportunity,” Miklos says.

While rural and remote roles can offer $5000 to $15,000 more than the equivalent metropolitan position, plus benefits such as remote allowances, subsidised travel or accommodation and a lower cost of living than urban areas, graduates report other benefits, too.

“Regional opportunities can typically offer accelerated training in clinical skills, as well as building out the critical soft skills that make a candidate standout. A graduate allied-health professional in a regional or rural health service gets great exposure to a variety of clinical areas due to the smaller teams which work on more generalist caseloads,” Miklos says.

For occupational therapist Eloise Bolt, a stint working rurally in Broken Hill helped develop both her initiative and clinical reasoning skills.

“You are exposed to situations you may not get to be exposed to as a new grad in a metro location. Often healthcare services are understaffed and under-resourced, and consequently, you have to step up your game and think outside of the box to ensure you are still delivering evidence-based and quality service,” says Bolt.