Workforce development programs
NQPHN’s current workforce development programs and initiatives are outlined below.
Going North – student placement support program
The Going North program offers non-medical students, with the exception of the medical students participating in the GROW Rural NQ program, a rural placement bursary to assist with travel and accommodation expenses during placement within primary health care settings across the NQPHN region.
Nursing, midwifery, allied health, and dentistry students interested in exploring career pathways into rural and remote health can access financial support for clinical placements, although support is limited. Supporting these students to undertake remote and rural placements is underpinned by the commitment Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) and NQPHN jointly share in generating a quality rural and remote workforce through interprofessional collaboration.
GROW Rural North Queensland program
NQPHN expanded the reach and capacity of the GROW Rural North Queensland (NQ) program by closely collaborating with practices, health services, and targeted communities across our region.
Over the course of the program, GROW Rural NQ students were supported to develop their career pathways and directed into identified employment opportunities within the NQPHN region. To ensure a multi-disciplinary team reflective of the selected North Queensland community’s health needs, across the three-year GROW Rural program, a maximum of 25 students completed their final weekend by participating in meaningful experiences including various workshops, acquiring local knowledge, and the exposure of recent weather events, discovering how small communities band together like no other.
The next round of the GROW Rural NQ program will be offered to first-year university health students. The communities identified to host these students include:
- Atherton
- Herberton
- Mareeba
- Ravenshoe
The program has expanded to further include a community link who sources placement opportunities and creates links to the community for each student for employment, housing, training, and recreational activities and further encourage the community to embrace newcomers and boost primary care services in these areas.
North Queensland Regional Clinical Societies
In partnership with James Cook University (JCU), this program delivers a series of regionally based education groups, run by GPs for GPs. Groups have been established in Cairns, Townsville, and Mackay, facilitated in collaboration with NQPHN and JCU.
This program is designed to assist GPs in achieving their necessary continuing professional development (CPD) requirements whilst also facilitating local networking and providing a comprehensive understanding of the local landscape, with the rural locations in each area being actively included.
North Queensland Rural Health Workforce Enhancement Campaign
Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) in partnership with Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) are working to build a sustainable primary care workforce through the recruitment and retention of general practitioners, nurses, and allied health professionals.
This multifaceted campaign focuses on the recruitment and orientation of incoming health professionals to boost and grow the current workforce whilst enhancing capability and improving capacity in priority NQPHN locations.
Nurse Re-entry Program
The Nurse Re-entry Program is an Australian government initiative supporting general practices to build their capability by hosting nurses in supervised placements. The program helps nurses who haven’t practised in the last 5-10 years to return to the workforce through paid, supervised placements in general practice.
The program also supports nurse practitioners transitioning into general practice. Practices can strengthen their teams by hosting a nurse and may receive a grant to support participation.
Rural Practice Essentials - Free Webinar Series for Allied Health
Build a practice that lasts
A free six-part webinar series for allied health professionals in the northern Queensland region.
Running a rural allied health service is complex. Funding models, workforce shortages, community needs, and regulatory requirements don’t operate in isolation – and neither should you. Rural Practice Essentials (RPE) brings together system insights, business fundamentals, workforce strategies, and lived experience from rural practice owners to give you what you need to navigate it all.
Delivered by Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH), Australia’s peak body representing the rural and remote allied health workforce. SARRAH exist to support the professionals who provide critical health services to communities that need them most.
What you’ll learn
Six sessions. Practice knowledge. Real impact.
- Session 1 – Introduction to Rural and Remote Allied Health
The Australian health system, health profile, regulatory environment, quality and safety, cultural responsiveness. - Session 2 – Business Sustainability
Funding streams, staff utilisation, overheads, digital uplift – with guest presenter David Hubbard (Cinch Transform) - Session 3 – Building Service Capacity
Models of care, community engagement, telehealth, DIDO/FIFO, workforce establishment - Session 4 – Workforce Planning
Recruitment, student placements, cadetships, retention, allied health assistants - Session 5 – Wellness and Resilience
– Leadership cost, rural-specific wellbeing strategies, building resilience at work - Session 6 – Facilitated Panel Discussion
Hear directly from rural practice owners – their challenges, opportunities, and insights from the field
Is this program for you?
RPE is designed for allied health professionals working in, or looking to work in, private or non-government organisations in the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) region. You’re a great fit if you are:
- a practice owner looking to strengthen your operational and strategic foundations
- a clinician considering private practice or service expansion
- an early-career AHP wanting to understand the rural health system
- an allied health manager or team leader building team capability
- a workforce or service planning professional looking to better understand the rural context.
No prior business training required. The program is open across all allied health professions.
Why it matters
More than a business course
RPE is intentionally designed as an end-to-end learning series – because in rural and remote practice, business decisions can’t be separated from policy, workforce, cultural safety, and wellbeing. Delivered over six consecutive weeks, the series builds system-level understanding and practical capability – the kind that supports services that are financially sustainable, workforce-ready, and built to last.
Program details
- Format: x6 live online webinars
- Duration: Three consecutive weeks, followed by a one-week break, then a further three consecutive weeks
- Expressions of interest open: Monday 3 August 2026
- Expressions of interest close: 4pm, Sunday 27 September 2026
- Successful applicants notified by: Monday 5 October 2026
- Commencement date: Wednesday 21 October 2026
- Cost: Free for eligible participants
Delivered by SARRAH in partnership with NQPHN. Free for eligible participants.
Ready to register?
Spots are limited. Express your interest now to secure your place.
Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) program
The VIP program is designed to support the GP workforce and build practice sustainability in MMM4-7 locations, urgently.
An urban/regional GP (the VIP GP) joins your practice remotely one to two-days per week for a minimum of 12-months, supporting your practice by providing telehealth appointments to your existing patients via secure, remote access. It is preferable that your patients attend their telehealth appointment at your practice. To enable comprehensive, quality primary care, the VIP GP is provided with secure, remote access to the practice software/medical records. Additionally, the VIP GP works onsite for three to five days every six months.