Table 5.

Strategies to alleviate the financial burden of unpaid clinical placements

Strategy	Description
Revise existing financial supports and consider additional supports	Revise existing financial supports for students across disciplines to examine whether they are sufficient (e.g., accommodation and travel support provided by University Departments of Rural Health and Rural Clinical Schools, funded by the Australian Government’s Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training program), particularly for mature-aged students, students with family responsibilities, from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, and rural or remote students undertaking a metropolitan placement, and metropolitan students undertaking a rural or remote placement [18, 19, 23, 24, 32, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 45, 46]. Consider gaps in support available for students
Revise placement models across disciplines	Consider different models of placements for different student cohorts (e.g., block, distributed), including more flexible placement models (e.g., adjustment of placement hours) to accommodate the division of unpaid labour (e.g., primary carers for children) and paid labour [19, 23, 33, 38, 40, 43, 46].
Revise university placement procedures	Revise university rules around students undertaking paid work during placement periods and process for negotiating placements [23, 27, 46]. Giving students a choice to locate placements near family or friends or with other students could ease the financial burden [34]. Providing students with sufficient notice of their placement (including facility and work schedule) and avoiding the delivery of coursework and assessments concurrently, was also supported [36].
Implement placement-specific support services	Implement support services to help students manage stress associated with clinical placements [21, 46].