Rural student clubs and the social responsibility of medical schools

All faculty members agree that their medical school has an academic purpose and a research purpose, but few medical faculty members agree that a medical education has a social purpose. This is one of the main reasons why there is a serious disjunction between rural societal needs and doctors' education. Rural student clubs are part of a rural counterculture within the orthodoxy of the medical school. Members of these clubs are thus potential agents of curricular change in the field of rural medicine. They are also one of the most potentially influential forces in reminding and helping medical schools to fulfil their social responsibility to the populations of rural Australia. Most rural student clubs are multidisciplinary, and the principles underlying their role in changing the direction and ethos of medical schools also apply to schools of nursing and health sciences.