Fifth-year medical student Katey Milne has been announced as one of 27 recipients of scholarships designed to help grow the rural health workforce.
Grants of between $2500 and $5000 have been awarded as part of the programme, which is distributing $90,000 to students through a partnership between Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) and Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.
Milne grew up in Kerikeri and has a particular interest in rural medicine. The scholarship will support her with travel costs to placements and enable focused study on an extracurricular course she’s confident will be invaluable for rural practice.
“It’s a lovely honour to be recognised in this way,” said Milne, who’s currently on placement in Whangārei Hospital and commuting around an hour each way from her home in Waimate North, Northland.
“It’s really great there are organisations resourcing students like myself to be able to pursue career interests in rural New Zealand. There are extra costs like transport associated with living rurally, so it’s awesome to have this backing.”
For Milne, who started the six-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Auckland in 2020, news of the scholarship means an additional radiology course she’s keen to participate in is all the more achievable.
“The extra course will cover reading X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, which is a really important skill for doctors working rurally. The scholarship means I can really make the most of the course because I won’t need to also try and fit in paid work in between placements.”
Milne is part of the Regional Rural Admission Scheme to encourage people to train and return to their rural areas to work. Next year she will need to move for her final placement to Hamilton.
“The scholarship will help significantly with removal costs too,” says the 22-year-old, who got married in 2023 and loves to hunt, fish and freedive.
“From high school age I knew I wanted to help people, and was really interested in healthcare in general as an amazing way of being able to do that.
“There’s a really big need for doctors and healthcare professionals in rural places and it comes with a beautiful lifestyle and community aspect as well – so in my mind it’s the full package!
“Specialising in rural medicine involves a training scheme which covers many specialties so I’ll know a little about everything to help keep people safe. It also encompasses women’s health, children’s health, and emergency medicine, which I’m really interested in too.”
RWNZ has consistently advocated for the government to incentivise health professionals to move to and remain in rural areas to improve equity of access to healthcare. The scholarships announced have come from a funding pool provided to RWNZ by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.
“We had a huge level of interest in these scholarships, and I want to congratulate each of the grant recipients,” said RWNZ chief executive Marie Fitzpatrick.
“It can be extremely difficult to undertake study from a rural community and anything we can do to make study a little bit easier is great.
“We know New Zealand faces a significant shortage of health professionals in our rural towns and regional communities, so it is great to see recipients studying in a broad range of fields including in the areas of medicine, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy and counselling.”
Said Dr Sarah Clarke, National Clinical Director Primary and Community Care at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora: “I would like to congratulate the successful scholarship applicants and recognise their hard work and commitment to their studies.
“Addressing the rural health workforce shortage is a priority for Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and we are committed to improving health outcomes for our rural communities. I look forward to seeing these scholarship recipients joining our rural health workforce over the coming years as they complete their studies.”
