Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP)

Established in 2007 by the late Dr Pat Farry, the first faculty wide, one-year long RMIP for 5th year medical students at Otago University offers an exciting new generation of learning that integrates primary, secondary and tertiary medical care through real life experiential learning.

Guided and mentored by experienced rural general practitioners, rural hospital generalists, rural nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists, local and visiting tertiary hospital specialists, mental health teams and Māori health faculty and providers, RMIP students cover the full 5th year curriculum in their own rural learning and living environment.

The RMIP is extremely rich in Faculty expertise and talent, with teaching and marking of case reports being undertaken by consultants from the three medical schools, and the teachers themselves working to develop innovative methods for full and timely "remote" delivery of the curriculum.

Rapidly developing IT, audio- and videoconferencing equipment and networks play a large part in facilitating remote access to city-based specialist services, and in maintaining critical communication lines with fellow students, colleagues, administration and the medical community as a whole, thus changing for better the daily operating facts of rural general practice.

With this raft of resources, and a strong emphasis on self-directed learning, the academic results of the RMIP students have been very impressive right from the inception of the programme, with outcomes progressively building each year.