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The new Rural Clinical School alumni association, which contains a mix of country-born students and city “converters”, was formed to help with networks and maintain a sense of collegiality.

The inaugural event was a cocktail evening in January.

Winthrop Professor Geoff Riley, Head of the Rural Clinical School of WA, said the RCS, which began in 2002, had reached a point of having more than 300 alumni and it was time to start gathering together.

“We want to keep in touch with people to see what their career paths look like as that is important information,” he said. “But the RCS is also a hugely fun and important experience. It is life-changing in all sorts of ways and for some of the students, it is the first time they have left home.”

The alumni association would also help with mentoring. “The older ones can encourage the younger ones and reassure them,” Professor Riley said.

Although a lot of the RCS students were from the country originally, many were also “converters” who hailed from Perth and fell in love with country life.

The RCS had a huge pull factor, Professor Riley said. “We are over-subscribed for entry so we have to interview.”

This year, there had been 120 applicants, of whom 116 were interviewed and 77 chosen.

“That is over our requirement, which was 73, but we have squeezed in some more because we wanted to give as many people as possible the opportunity,” the professor said.

Associate Professor Mike Mears, RCS Medical Coordinator, told the guests at the cocktail evening that medical life in rural WA was full of opportunity.

“When I trained in the UK there was a glut of GPs and hence little opportunity,” he said. “I felt I was de-skilling as soon as I was trained. Arriving in country WA could not have been more different.

“‘It’s great that you are here!’ ‘What can we do to make you stay?’ were common greetings.”

Associate Professor Mears said RCS students in the country would find the same, that they were always being presented with opportunities. “It is up to you to grasp them,” he told the crowd.

The status and standing of country medicine and country doctors had been enhanced by the presence of RCS students, he said.

“As my wife remarked late last year as she popped in to ED after hours to drop off some specimens and noted three students busy there, one with the ophthalmologist, one examining a patient and one stitching up his preceptor who had cut himself with an angle grinder, plus the ex RCS Prevocational General Practice Placements Program doctor setting a fracture; ‘These students have breathed life back into this place- it feels like being back in a real teaching hospital.’”

Associate Professor Mears said all the country hospitals were now “real teaching hospitals”, thanks to the students, the teachers and those with the vision to make it all happen.