More people are living and working in rural and regional Victoria. Rural health practice is varied and complex, and there is a need to develop a rural health workforce. There are a number of government initiatives to help recruit health professionals to medical, nursing and allied health services in regional areas in Victoria.
- Allied Health Regional Workforce Development – This initiative promotes allied health careers in rural and regional Victoria by building regional capacity and coordination for allied health workforce recruitment and retention, and through providing professional support including professional development and a mentoring program.
- Nursing and Midwifery Workforce – Funding is available to attract and retain nursing and midwifery graduates in rural areas of Victoria. Postgraduate midwifery studies scholarships are available for rural registered nurses. Grants for Enrolled Nurses are available to assist public health services to increase skills in the enrolled nurse workforce.
- Medical Workforce - The department provides funding to the Connecting the Docs to support medical workforce recruitment and retention in the Loddon Mallee region and other rural and sub-regional areas of Victoria. The program is tailored to individual needs, encompassing work, training supports, professional and social networks, and integration into communities.
Continuing professional development for rural health professionals
It is important that doctors, as well as other health professionals working in rural and regional areas of Victoria, have access to continuing professional development (CPD) and training to update their medical skills to improve the quality of primary care practice.
The department supports a lifelong learning approach to skills development and career progression. In the dynamic healthcare industry especially, CPD is essential for health professionals to maintain clinical skills and knowledge, and to continue providing the best quality care to all patients.
Rural Workforce Agency Victoria
The department provides funding to the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria to support CPD activities and training programs for general practitioners (GPs) and registrars working in rural general practice in Victoria.
Further information is available from the RWAV grants webpage.
Other continuing professional development programs
The following programs are available to support the CPD needs of practising health professionals in Victoria.
- Mobile Learning Unit, University of - Provides online CPD courses for medical practitioners in healthcare sector. Learners will build knowledge, be quizzed on a scenario, watch a video with questions to answer or test knowledge with various case studies. Most of MLU courses are fully accredited with RACGP.
- Ultrasound Education Group, University of - Provides online courses, simulation course and hand-on workshop for General Practitioners in clinical point-of-care ultrasound, transthoracic echocardiogram, transesophageal echocardiography, lung, peri arrest and vascular access. The rapid technology developments have enabled point-of-care ultrasound to be performed by the practitioner in real time.
- Nursing and Midwifery Workforce - Includes information about the range of opportunities that exist for Victorian nurses to undertake CPD programs and/or increase their clinical skills via formal training pathways. The Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education (CNME) grant is provided to public health services as a contribution to the cost of developing and providing education programs for nurses and midwives who have a focus on developing acute care knowledge and skills. There also exists the Training and Development Grant (Nursing), post graduate scholarships, and other one off grants .
- The Victorian Government supports advanced procedural and extended skills training for general practitioners through regional training providers.
- Medical specialist have a range of CPD requirements and administer a number of programs to support medical practitioners.
Reviewed 15 April 2025