The Australian government has committed to pay nursing, midwifery, social worker and teaching students for mandatory workplace placements. Medical students are also gravely affected by the cost-of-living crisis but have been left out.

We are calling on Minister Clare to include Medical Students on full time placements within the upcoming paid placements reform because: 

1. Medical placements are long and inflexible - they uniquely drive placement poverty.
   The medical degree’s structure and high demand results in over 2,000 hours of unpaid labour and study. 
   Students suffer from inflexible timetables that change frequently. Many need to relocate from home, sometimes multiple times within a single year. This makes part-time work almost impossible, driving placement poverty.
2. We must support students who are hardest hit by the cost of living crisis - they’ll become the doctors we need the most. Without support measures like paid placements, we are cutting out most of society from joining the medical workforce, leaving it only for privileged people who can pay their way through the degree.
   Research shows that students who come from low-SES and rural areas are most likely to return to work there as doctors. Paid placements directly invest in the communities that need it the most.
   
   
3. Medical students are the untapped solution to our health workforce shortage - but they need our support.
   Medical students fill key workforce shortages by completing both clinical and administrative work, particularly in under-funded hospitals. But this can’t happen if they’re forced to leave placement and work elsewhere to support themselves.
   We need an energised and well-supported medical student cohort that can give back to our health system.

Include medical students on fulltime placement to paid placement reforms - Minister Clare must end placement poverty now!

For more info visit: https://amsa.org.au/advocacy-and-policy/cost-of-living/