Around 25-30 medical students spend their third year attached to a regional general practice and a regional hospital where they complete a 'parallel rural community curriculum' through the Rural Community Clinical School (RCCS). Students cover the same material as those studying in Geelong or Melbourne, which include Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynaecology. Third year Deakin University medical students in the RCCS program are hosted in regional and rural Victorian towns including
Bacchus Marsh,
Maryborough,
Colac,
Ararat,
Camperdown,
Casterton,
Horsham,
Stawell and
Hamilton. Teaching is provided by face-to-face instruction by general practitioners and visiting medical and surgical specialists. Unlike in the other clinical schools attached to Deakin, the RCCS curriculum follows a Longitudinal Integrated
Clerkship (LIC) model. Through this model, rather than cycling through set rotations throughout the year, students encounter a wide range of patient presentations, both outpatient and inpatient, which cover the same content that is encountered through conventional rotation-based learning. Another aspect of the RCCS program is that students perform "parallel consulting" in general practice and visiting specialists' consulting rooms. This means the student consults one-on-one with a patient, then presents their findings to the supervising doctor. The doctor completes the consultation with the student observing, giving the student opportunities to develop practical clinical skills such as history taking, physical examination, case presentation and medical management. By placing students in rural general practices and hospitals rather than major metropolitan hospitals, the aim of RCCS is to give students exposure to rural medicine, with the ultimate objective of encouraging more medical graduates to work in regional Australia. == Deakin Medical Students' Association ==