Southern Queensland Rural Health Education and Training Centre opens in Chinchilla

The brand new Southern Queensland Rural Health Education and Training Centre is expected to boost the health force in the Western Downs. Find out more here.

The Southern Queensland Rural Health Education and Training Centre in Chinchilla has officially opened. Photo: Contributed.

Nursing and allied health students will have access to high quality placement opportunities with the opening of the Southern Queensland Rural Health Education and Training Centre in Chinchilla.

Situated in the Illoura Village Aged Care Facility, the training centre will facilitate learning and collaboration, as well as supporting health students and professionals within the region.

The opening day was held on Tuesday with stakeholder meetings taking place in the morning followed by a smoking ceremony, Welcome to Country and tour of the training centre.

Chinchilla training centre

Clinical educator for nursing Colleen Forde said the brand new facility would provide a positive environment for students doing their regional placements.

“It's really nice, we have four computers, a lovely modern, communal area where they can come in and get on the computer and do their assignments, we’ve got a huge training room that seats 16 people, we also have another meeting room with a big TV where they can watch lectures and do zoom meetings, we also have a simulation room that we use for the nurses,” she said.

“It's been refurbished from the old activities room in the home and it has been done up into a really modern inviting training room for the students.

“We do eight-week placements because statistics state that the longer the placement the more likely students are to embed themselves in the rural community and the more likely they are to return.

“It really gives them a taste of what it is like to live and work rurally.”

Emma McBride MP, Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health and Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, open the facility along with Professor Debbie Terry AC, UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Geraldine Mackenzie, UniSQ Vice Chancellor, and Jason Eldering, CEO, SCCQ.

Mr Forde said it was all about helping to bolster the regional health workforce.

“SQRH are all about supporting students that come out on placement and we do that through our partnership with Southern Cross Care the aged care facility in Chinchilla,” she said.

“We support the student when they come out on placement and encourage them to come back to rural and improve the rural workforce.

“We also do programs encouraging high school students to take a high school career and hopefully they choose that down the road.

“We are all about building the rural workforce in nursing and allied health.”

Originally published as Southern Queensland Rural Health Education and Training Centre opens in Chinchilla