Year 4 Surgical Home Unit Program
Surgery is one of the key disciplines of the MBBS course and on graduation all students are expected to have had a reasonable clinical exposure to surgical patients and a basic understanding of surgical principles.
Students are exposed to the discipline of surgery at varying stages of the clinical curriculum and the foundations are laid during the nine-week Surgical Home Unit (SHU) attachments of Year 4. Students again have the opportunity to experience other clinical attachments with a surgical focus during the Medical and Scientific Attachments (MSAs), the Year 6 selectives and the mini-internships.
Learning Centres
The Rural Clinical School has a number of learning centres throughout South Australia as well as Broken Hill, NSW. The rural SHU is available at a limited number of our teaching sites. Each site is equipped with student facilities, including student accommodation, study areas, libraries and up to date IT equipment, including video conferencing facilities. Teaching sites for the Year 4 rural surgery program during each of the four rotations for the year are:
- Mt Gambier (3 places)
- Port Augusta (3 places)
- Port Lincoln (2 places)
- Whyalla (3 places)
- Broken Hill - last rotation only - (2 places)
Please note that number of spots available in each site may be subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control.
For students travelling to the RCS Learning Centres, the following is provided:
- Free accommodation
- IT access at accommodation
- Student Coordinator - onsite staff member to assist in general support issues and orientation to the location.
- Video Conference facilities
- Academic support may also be available
Application Process
To be considered for the Year 4 Rural Surgical Home Unit in 2020, students should submit an expression via the online application form. Details will be posted on MyUni when applications open. Please note that it is a requirement that you have a car available to take with you on placement.
Placements are allocated using a random allocation process from the pool of students expressing interest in the program. Rural background entry students will be given priority. Note that due to our funding parameters, places are only available for domestic students.
