Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC)

The Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) program is a 19-week apprenticeship model of experiential learning in a rural community for Year 5 JMP students.

Students live, work and develop relationships over an extended time in a small rural community. Learning activities are integrated within all the health services of the rural community. Students see patients with their GP supervisor and then follow the patient journey to hospital, allied health services, rehabilitation, aged care and returning home to their community.

In the program, students become more immersed in their clinical environments, experience greater patient contact, and receive more supervision than their city-based teaching-hospital peers. LIC graduates feel well-prepared, clinically confident and work-ready and cope better in future internship than graduates of traditional metro hospital block rotations.

Student Experience

Students in the LIC always have Level 1 supervision.

"After completing the LIC at Inverell, I felt so much better prepared for my internship on the QLD rural generalist pathway- so much more comfortable working up patients in the ED and with assisting on the birth suite/in the OT. As well it was so much easier to have Consultant level bosses who actually knew me, who were happy to be my reference when applying for internships! Definitely a great experience."

Jessica - past LIC Medical student

"In the LIC I get the ability to hone my clinical reasoning and procedural skills. The exposure that we get in this rural setting is unrivalled in larger centres, as other medical students and junior medical staff would not be completing the work we are doing here."

James - past LIC Medical Student

Future regional health force

Communities outside of the cities are currently facing a rural healthcare crisis. Our regions are struggling from widespread doctor shortages and GP clinic closures. UNE is committed to improving the health outcomes of these communities and offers the LIC as an innovative program to help resolve the ongoing heath crisis.

The LIC is part of a strategy to boost regional health workforce numbers and is designed to attract senior medical students to rural general practice. To increase the number of rural general practitioners the evidence is clear, you need to attract students who have grown up in the country, and make it attractive for them to train in a rural centre.

"In effect, we’re trying to grow our own regional GPs." - LIC Academic Coordinator, Dr Maree Puxty.

Portrait of mature woman smiling with thick black rimmed glasses and white shirt.

LIC Academic Lead, Dr Maree Puxty.

Interested in being a rural doctor?

Not only will you have the opportunity to improve health outcomes for rural and regional Australians, but students gain numerous benefits from participating in the LIC:

Career head-start 
  • Length of clinical attachment makes it probable that the students will become more useful as they improve their clinical skills and become a helpful member of the GP team - Change from being a student to an apprentice.
  • Students have exposure to a broader range of patients and clinicians.
  • No competition for access to patients in ED and hospitals.
  • Greater opportunities for face-to-face teaching with GPs and visiting specialists.
  • Greater opportunity to undertake procedures.
  • Greater access to surgical assisting and obstetric deliveries.
  • Follow the journey of the patient.
  • Become more work ready.
  • Valuable experience for post-grad training-Rural Generalist Program, GP, ED, O&G, Surgery, basic physician training.
Financial support
  • Scholarships available.
  • Special payment from Hunter New England Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECCPHN) fund.
  • Rent assistance available.
 Flexible locations
  • Study and work across the New England North West with an expanding geographic catchment.

The LIC is part of the Joint Medical Program (JMP) - in partnership between UNE and the University of Newcastle - and is partially funded by the Betty Fyffe Bequest.

For further information or expressions of interest: