Medical students have welcomed a federal government plan to wipe doctors' and senior nurses' student debt if they go bush after graduating, ABC News.
The proposed legislation will pay off doctors' and nurse practitioners' loans if they work in regional and remote areas.
The lure aims to attract students to fill a critical shortage of health workers in regional areas, which the Rural Doctors Association Australia said numbered in the "thousands".
Bavelin Gill, a 22-year-old medical student at James Cook University, said the change could really make a difference for her cohort.
"I would definitely 100 per cent be inclined to take upon this initiative, graduating and having no [HELP debt] is such a privilege," she said.
"I think it's such a great incentive that lots of students or newly graduates would also like to be a part of."
The government estimates about 850 workers per year would use the program.
Imogen Pratt is a third-year postgraduate medical student studying at Deakin University in the Victorian town of Portland.
The 25-year-old, who grew up near the Victorian and South Australian borders, said it would help with her eye-watering HELP debt bill.
"I've got a debt of almost $100,000 waiting for me at the end of my degree, so it's certainly a welcome incentive," she said.
How will the plan work?
Under the plan, the government will repay the entire HELP debt for doctors or nurse practitioners who work in "remote" areas for a time period half as long as their qualification.
During that time they must be working at least 24 hours per week.
Those stationed in "large, medium or small rural towns" for half the length of their degree would wipe just half their debt.
They would need to stay for the entire length of their qualification to have it eliminated entirely.
FULL STORY
Doctors and senior nurses could get HELP debt paid off for working in remote Australia (ABC News)
PHOTO
Imogen Pratt is studying in regional Victoria, and hopes to work rurally.(Supplied)
