To the Editor: The School of Medicine at James Cook University (JCU) was established in 1999, based on a case that the workforce needs of northern Australia needed to be addressed.1 The model was based in part on other regional medical schools in the United States, Canada and Europe, which had demonstrated that local student recruitment and training could produce graduates who prefer to work in either local or similar regional and rural areas.2 The 6-year undergraduate curriculum at JCU has achieved considerable success in recruiting students from rural backgrounds3 and in developing and delivering a rural curriculum.4

The first cohort of students graduated at the end of 2005, and the intended locations of their internship are now known. JCU students were treated like graduates of other schools by the intern allocation systems within each state. Of 58 graduating students, 51 (88%) have chosen to remain within Queensland, with 29 (50%) in the three North Queensland intern training hospitals, occupying a majority of available intern places in the region. Twelve (21%) will work in other regional hospitals in Queensland and 10 (17%) in a hospital in Brisbane. Seven will work interstate. Furthermore, most of the 37 students of North Queensland origin are staying in North Queensland or adjacent regional centres (only two are leaving Queensland); and about half of the Brisbane-origin and interstate-origin students are staying in Queensland. Hence, while some local students have chosen to move away, some from other states have chosen to stay close to where they moved to study.

Forty-two students (72%) responded to a brief survey exploring their decisions. The most popular reasons for choosing the location of their internship were proximity to family and friends, and trying somewhere different from where they had received their training. All but five respondents indicated that they were “likely” or “very likely” to work somewhere in North Queensland in the future, depending on the availability of postgraduate training opportunities.

This outcome suggests that the intended workforce mission of the school may be achievable through a combination of selection and curriculum strategies. A longitudinal cohort study is in progress to address longer-term graduate career choice outcomes.