This week about 120 University of Tasmania medical students are on placement at rural communities across the state.

On Monday a handful of them visited the flying doctors to experience the vital medical service it provides. 

RFDS Tasmania chief executive officer John Kirwan said the afternoon class gave students an understanding of expectations in the service.

“We’d also like them to work for us at some stage as well,” he added. 

Rural Week allows medical students in their second year to experience living and working rurally, while learning how local health care services are accessed and delivered differently.

Mr Kirwan said rural placement benefited medical students – even if they worked in a city following their study.

“If you’re working in a bigger hospital or a metropolitan area and you’ve got patients coming in it’s important to be able to speak to their referring doctor and understand where they’re coming from, but as important to actually understand when you’re referring a patient back out of a hospital like the Launceston General Hospital to those communities, what care they‘ll get,” he said.

Medical student Louisa Morris moved to Hobart from the bright lights of the Gold Coast to study.

“It’s been a good opportunity for me to experience first-hand a lot of what makes the day-to-day running of rural medicine,” she said.

“What I’ve seen of rural medicine so far has me very interested.”