Unpaid placement means future medicos facing hunger, homelessness

Thousands of the country’s future healthcare workers are going hungry and facing homelessness, the cost of living too much as they do the unpaid placements need to finish their degrees.

The Health Students Alliance is putting pressure on politicians to expand support for medical students who must do unpaid prac to graduate.

Thousands of the country’s future healthcare workers are going hungry and facing homelessness, unable to afford costs associated with the unpaid placements required to complete their degrees.

As the nation struggles with a health workforce crisis, many students are being forced to drop out of their studies due to placement poverty.

A nationwide alliance of students – including those studying psychology, physiotherapy and pharmacy – will launch a campaign asking the government for financial support.

In May 2024, the federal government announced it would establish a Commonwealth Prac Payment for teaching, social work, nursing and midwifery students doing mandatory unpaid placements. From July, eligible students will be able to access $319.50 per week, benchmarked to the single Austudy rate, while on placement.

But the newly formed Health Students Alliance has called out the government for ignoring the struggles facing the tens of thousands of pharmacy, physiotherapy, psychology and other allied health students it represents.

Students who do unpaid placements in allied health fields are fighting for more financial support.

Healthcare students face up to 1000 hours of unpaid placements, making it nearly impossible to balance paid work while studying.

The calls come amid a tightening rental market, with the latest REA Group Market Insight report showing rental prices have spiked across Queensland.

The median price in Brisbane and also regional areas is now $630 a week.

The cost of buying property is also skyrocketing, with analysis from Propertyology anticipating house prices will jump another 10 per cent in Brisbane this year, while in some regional areas, like Townsville, prices could grow by another 30 per cent.

“Many of the country’s brightest future healthcare professionals are being driven into placement poverty – unable to afford food, groceries, or rent, with some even facing homelessness – at the height of a cost-of-living crisis,” Health Students Alliance spokesman Sebastian Harper said.

“For example, a national survey revealed that 84 per cent of pharmacy students had to take unpaid leave from jobs to complete mandatory placements. The impact is stark, with 86 per cent experiencing financial hardship, and over half (56 per cent) reporting skipping meals due to the strain,” he said.

The HSA plans to campaign in metropolitan federal seats with large clusters of young voters – where Labor is already under fire from the Greens – to pressure the government to extend financial support to students in pharmacy and allied health degrees from July.

“We’re calling on the government to ‘Look After Us Today, So We Can Look After You Tomorrow’,” Mr Harper said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare acknowledged the problem last year.

“Placement poverty is a real thing. I have met students who told me they can afford to go to uni, but they can’t afford to do the prac,” he said.

Originally published as Unpaid placement means future medicos facing hunger, homelessness