About Us

Our vision for excellence in rural and remote health and workforce.

To achieve this, CQCRRH will provide supported opportunities for University students to undertake their placements in rural and remote locations across Central Queensland and surrounding areas in an enriched learning environment through partnerships with local communities, organisations, clinicians and services. Building a local rural and remote health workforce in, for and with the region will provide the people of Central Queensland with better access to the health care services they need to live a healthy and vibrant life.

What is the Centre for Rural and Remote Health?

James Cook University Central Queensland Centre for Rural and Remote Health (JCU CQCRRH) is a University Department of Rural Health (UDRH). UDRHs are partnerships between a University and the Commonwealth Department of Health and act as academic centres based in Rural and Remote Australia with a focus on health education and Research. The Central Queensland Centre for Rural and Remote Health is run by James Cook University and is the 17th UDRH to be formed in Australia.
UDRHs are located all over regional Australia, and together, the centres across the country form the Australian Rural Health Education Network, AHREN.

For more information on AHREN click here: https://arhen.org.au

The main focus of a UDRH is to support rural and remote communities and their health workforce by fostering innovative teaching partnerships with local health providers and community services. The long-term impact of this stimulates the growth of the health workforce and creates economic and social value in the region.

Where are we located?

JCU Central Queensland Centre for Rural and Remote Health is based in Emerald, with plans to serve the Central Highlands area of Central Queensland along with the southwestern reaches of the Isaac Shire and northwestern reaches of the Banana Shire taking in the township of Biloela.

Our purpose

The  JCU CQCRRH is funded by the Australian Government through the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program (RHMT) to improve the recruitment and retention of medical, nursing, dental, and allied health professionals in rural and remote Australia. This will ultimately improve the health and well-being of Australians living in rural and remote areas.

This goal will be achieved by:

• Providing effective rural training experiences for health students.
• Developing an evidence base for the efficacy of rural training strategies in delivering rural health workforce outcomes.
• Supporting rural health professionals to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
• Increasing the number of rural-origin health and medical students.
• Maximising the investment of program funds in rural, regional, and remote areas for the maintenance of well-supported academic networks to enhance the delivery of training to students and the provision of medical services to communities. 

A flow-on benefit of the program will be an increase in the delivery of health services in rural areas through student clinical training activities. Additionally, clinical staff engaged through the program bring experience and local benefits to rural healthcare provision.