The frontline and the ivory tower: a case study of service and professional-driven curriculum

To describe the development of a postgraduate, multidisciplinary program designed to meet the needs of remote health professionals, present formative evaluation findings and to offer an analysis of the difficulties and lessons learnt.

Case study.

University Department of Rural Health in a remote region.

University staff, students and stakeholders involved in the development of the remote health practice program.

Formative evaluation suggests that a curriculum driven by service and professional groups, such as the Flinders University Remote Health Practice program, is able to better prepare remote health practitioners and improve their effectiveness. Difficulties in development included a lack of recognition by some university academics of the value of practitioner knowledge and a reluctance to accept a clinical component in a masters program. Lessons learnt included the importance of: (i) respect for practitioner knowledge; (ii) explicit and appropriate values; (iii) high-quality academics with strong service links; (iv) appropriate length of lead time; (v) institutional links between university and both relevant professional organisations and health services; (vi) a receptive university; (vii) location; and (viii) ongoing engagement with services and professional responsive development.

The success of the program was due in large part to the relationship with professional bodies and close links with remote health services. We have described a number of lessons learnt from this experience that can be useful to other educational groups developing or revising their educational programs.