Hi
I have started my MRBS in 2003, will became a specialist in early 2016, I haven’t signed my deed of variation which gives you scaling which is great but also closes loopholes that in the early years of the MRBS were available,.youre bound to the original contract and the attachment B with all the towns and cities in your case RRMA2-7 . So if you’re on the old contract the( Dep of Health)cannot Denny you working in those areas that now would be out of reach as long as you didn’t signed the deed of variation.

Hi Joel,

Sorry to hear about your difficult situation. You were probably interested to hear that the Department of Health is no longer taking new entrants into the MRBS: http://www.health.gov.au/mrbscholarships

Best wishes,
Amanda – founder MHC.

I too am a first cohort MRBS doctor – now a FANZCA (an Anaesthetist). Your comments about the MRBS scheme echo my thoughts exactly. I could not have predicted all those years ago when I signed on (and I too achieved a place in Medical school without the necessity of the Bond) that I would have two young children and an ex wife living overseas and that I obviously would much prefer to be where my kids are than in some remote area of Australia. I am currently looking for ways to make it so I can complete the return of service and maintain a decent connection with my kids… if it comes down to it, given the harshness of the requirements for return of service and my difficult personal position I may simply pull out, replay the money and perhaps talk to a solicitor about the employment restrictions they could impose. After all, if it is impossible to fulfil the obligation they at least need to leave you with the ability to work and so repay the debt.

Your comments about the stigma and the lack of support for senior graduates are also exactly how I feel. I feel I was tricked at a vulnerable point in my life into taking the scholarship, a decision I regret now.

Thanks
Joel

This was a great read for me- I too am an MRB scholar. I started post-grad med in 2002, and fellowed last year in ACRRM and RACGP (yes I know, doing both was craziness). My MRB experience was very similar to yours (lots of my med school classmates assuming that we our place in med was linked to our scholarship and that we had sold our souls) but I did have a couple of advantages. I was born and raised rural/remote, so never wanted to do anything else: this in itself carried a bit of stigma at uni! I think being post-grad was also advantageous; I had already ‘lived’ a bit in my first degree (ag science!) and I felt for me there were very few disadvantages to signing up.

At the other end, now married to a farmer cum diesel fitting miner, with one child, it is a little more daunting, because ‘later on’ is here and it means I need to keep working through that six years. But I was very comfortable through uni, and yes, I’d do it again.

Do you want a job? I have one of the best in the country I reckon. I work in Nhulunbuy, North-East Arnhemland. We have a small hospital where we deliver about 200 babies a year and look after….well, everything. This week alone we’ve had a 31 week HELLP syndrome, a compartment syndrome, a few bronchy babies, couple of sepsises (is that sepsi??), a varicella pneumonitis and I’ve just come home from a cord prolapse. I am one of three and a bit GP anaesthetists here, and there are three GP obstetricians. As in all rural places, we have a pretty high turnover (this is my fifth year) and we are desperately trying to recruit another GP Obs. Traditionally here the GP obs don’t cover much ED, unless we get short, so you won’t spend much time lying STEMIs… And it is a wonderful, well-serviced town (especially for kids if you have any). The fishing shits on the Pilbara, to put it bluntly….!

If I sound desperate, we are a bit! Anyway, great article- thanks! I’m sure one day we’ll cross paths somewhere!
Cheers
Greer

Congratulations on your ATAR!

Just checking that you saw our more recent article about the BMPS and the MRBS: https://www.myhealthcareer.com.au/medicine/bmps-mrbs-2015

Also, you can contact the Department of Health for more information: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/work-st-bmp-cont

Firstly, I just wanted to start this message by letting you know how grateful I am for you to have written this blog. Supplementing this, I wanted to commend you on your writing style — not only informative, but a great read!

I’m a second year student who currently holds an MRBS position in NSW. Like Blake (who asked some really pertinent questions, so thank you; thanks also to you, Penny, for answering them!), my family didn’t have the finances to put me through medical school, so the monetary aspect of the scholarship was a huge incentive for me to accept as a 20-year-old McDonald’s employee. More importantly though, I feel, is that I have lived in an RA2 area my whole life, so rural health has always been a ubiquitous passion of mine.

I was just wondering whether there were any institutions or any persons through your experiences who helped you to solidify a course of action in order to become a rural health practitioner, and whether they helped you to come to terms with the reality of it all before finishing medical school? I applied for the John Flynn Program last year, but wasn’t selected in the final round of cuts, but am reapplying this year, and also applying for a rural mentor program. If unsuccessful for both, do you have any recommendations of what to pursue–while studying–that could help me come to terms with the reality of rural health? You mentioned conferences for bonded students – would you recommend them, and are they particularly relevant to rural practice? I feel as though I’m going to be totally inundated with expectations and assumed knowledge/skills when I begin my rural practice, much like yourself from what I can gather, haha :/

Also, I’ve become increasingly interested in the field of sexual health (after having volunteered with an organisation called ACON since 2012), and was wondering whether that would be considered too niche of a specialty in a rural area, and whether I should look into specialising as a GP focusing on sexual health? Actually, it’s way too early to think of specialising. I understand that GP’s are in high demand though, so should I look into becoming a GP who then specialises in a sub-specialty, and pursue that sub-specialty when I have more options available to me?

Thanks again for your story, Penny – I really hope you can find contentment within the last few years of your MRBS commitment :)

I was offered a MRBS place in the 2014 intake for the MBBS. The offer was made in September 2013. However I have now been advised by the university that the govt has not confirmed it will actually fund the scholarship attached to the offer (although a CSP place was guaranteed), and is conducting a review. This is quite a big deal for me, as the scholarship made the financial difference in being able to study, as I expect it has to many of the other 99 prospective recipients of the MRBS in 2014. I had also adjusted my financial, living and employment affairs on the understanding I would obtain the MRBS as offered.

I suppose the AMSA and AMA will be happy to see the end of the scheme, but I feel much aggrieved.