Scholarships
Last updated January 22, 2024
The Primary Health Network is committed to providing scholarship support for health providers and administrative staff to enhance workforce development. We have provided scholarship funding in a number of targeted areas including:
- General Practice administration
- Clinical skills
- Chronic disease
- Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health
- Women's Health.
Since commencing the scholarship program, we have provided more than half a million dollars to fund scholarship programs that improve professional skills and competencies and contribute towards better patient health outcomes.
Want to know more?
Contact our Workforce Manager Alison Tattersall on atattersall@thephn.com.au for details on current scholarship opportunities.
See below for details on current scholarship programs.
Central Coast GP Scholarship Program
The program offers Central Coast GPs short term paid placements within interesting clinical areas of the Central Coast Local Health District. These placements provide opportunities for GPs to update their knowledge and skills by working in a supported environment with local experts and their clinical teams.
The program is conducted in partnership with the Central Coast Local Health District. Each scholarship comprises 40 hours of continuing professional development activity. For 2023/24, placements are fully accredited for 5 hours of Educational Activity and 35 hours of Reviewing Performance. This covers a significant proportion of the 50 hours of CPD that GPs are required to accumulate each year.
The course timeline is flexible, offering 4 hours a week for 10 weeks, 8 hours a week for 5 weeks or one full week.
This opportunity is designed to give GPs:
- An opportunity to improve practice and delivery of services
- Networking opportunities - building supportive relationships between the generalist and specialist workforce
- The option of attending in-service education sessions occurring during the placement including multi-professional meetings
- A better understanding of the services available locally, and how to refer to these services.
- An increased ability to reflect on and analyse own clinical practice
Scholarship placements are currently offered in the areas of Paediatrics, Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care. Placements have been allocated for early 2024. New placement opportunities will be advertised via Expression of Interest when these become available.
Additional funding to support professional development for medical practitioners is available through the Rural Doctors Network - Health Workforce Scholarship Program (HWSP)/
The Health Workforce Scholarship Program provides scholarships and bursaries to help health professionals in remote, rural and regional Australia retain and enhance their skills, capacity and scope of practice.
NSW Rural Doctors Network (RDN) has received funding to commence Round 2 of the Health Workforce Scholarship Program (HWSP) for 2023-2024.
The RDN Service Portal will be open from 8th January 2024 for applicants to submit new applications.
The program offers:
- Scholarships: a payment up to $10,000 per year, for up to two years, towards the cost of completing a postgraduate course leading to a postgraduate qualification.
- Bursaries: a payment up to $10,000 for professional development and upskilling course fees and associated accommodation and travel-related expenses.
To find out more regarding eligibility requirements and new application guidelines, click here.
For any enquiries, please contact the HWSP team on hwsp@nswrdn.com.au
Certificate IV Medical Practice Assist
Hunter New England Central Coast PHN in collaboration with UNE Partnerships has a long history in awarding scholarships to support practice staff who wish to study the Medical Practice Assisting course.
These PHN scholarships are currently not on offer for early 2024, however, UNE Partnerships is currently offering limited places for subsidised training under the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s Smart and Skilled Initiative. This initiative is specifically designed to support professional development within New South Wales.
This offer is very limited and is strictly on a first in, first served basis, when it is exhausted, no further funding will be available in 2024.
Smart and Skilled Student Co-contribution Fees:
| Link to course info | Course name | First Qualification* | Second Qualification* | Concession ** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HLT47715 | Cert IV in Medical Practice Assisting | $1,920 | $2,340 | $240 |
* All funding is dependent on meeting the NSW Government specifications during the application process.
** Must hold a valid concession card such as a welfare health card or be of Aboriginal/ Torres Straight Island heritage to qualify.
The NSW Smart and Skilled funding has eligibility criteria which includes:
- Over 15 years old and no longer at school.
- Living or working in NSW.
- An Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, humanitarian visa holder or New Zealand citizen.
To enquire or enrol for a course:
- Follow the course link in the table above, or
- Contact Dina Collison (UNE) directly on (02) 6773 1346 or via email at Dina.Collison@unep.edu.au
The Certificate IV Medical Practice Assisting course is nationally accredited, and this aligns with changes to models of care in General Practice. Medical Practice Assistants are trained to perform a range of administration and front desk tasks, as well as assisting in a wide range of instructed treatment room activities. They are a highly valued, multiskilled team member of a medical practice and play a role in relieving stress and workload across a practice.
Candidates must be working in a medical practice setting and must have a manager willing to sign off observation reports.
The course is delivered through blended learning including workshops, webinars, workplace observations and online study, and includes 6 full days of face to face practical skills training over the whole course duration.