Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health

Home Placements Allied Health in Outback Schools

The Allied Health in Outback Schools (AHOS) Program offers allied health and nursing students an opportunity to complete a paediatric service-learning placement on the grounds of a local school in our purpose-built health hubs.

Students in this program are allocated to a specific local primary school and are given a caseload of pupils. Students are required to apply their discipline-specific skills to assess, support and/or provide treatment to their pupils under supervision of a BHUDRH academic or supervisor.

Students in this program are generally 3rd or 4th year undergraduates, or 2nd year masters. As a result, they are expected to be self-directing and to operate independently, but also work collaboratively with other allied health students while also maintaining clear lines of communication with teachers, parents, children, peers, as well as their supervisor.

While on placement, students can expect to develop the following skills:

organisation and professionalism
time management
stakeholder engagement
team work
written and verbal communication
group presentation and education
working with primary school aged children
program evaluation
producing quality case notes and reports

Visit 'My Schools' website for more information about our local schools

Due to the intrinsic difficulties of recruiting to remote areas, access to allied health services has always been a key issue for Broken Hill's and surrounding regions' preschools and primary schools, which impacts on the academic achievement of pupils.

In 2009, the BHUDRH in collaboration with the region's primary schools and Far West Local Health District, responded to this need through the implementation of a recurring service-learning speech pathology student placement. Due to the overwhelming success of these placements, the program was expanded to include the following allied health disciplines:

Occupational Therapy
Social Work
Dietetics
Audiology
Exercise Physiology

The aim of the AHOS Program is threefold: to offer a rewarding placement to our allied health students by incorporating a service-learning placement model; provide an in-demand service to the deserving pupils of Broken Hill and surrounding regions; and to inspire children to consider an allied health or nursing career path through their exposure students in the health hubs.