Disability Access and Inclusion
Joint Program in Medicine Disability Inclusive Mission Statement
The Joint Program in Medicine (JPM) is a collaboration between Western Sydney University (WSU) and Charles Sturt University (CSU) medical schools to co-deliver the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program. The JPM is a five-year undergraduate degree that qualifies students to become medical interns in Australia and New Zealand. Successful applicants study their degree either at WSU on campus, and in clinical schools in Greater Western Sydney, with some students electing clinical placements in Bathurst or Lismore in Year 4, or at CSU Orange campus and regional clinical schools.
The mission and objectives of the medical program have been shaped and driven by our commitment to our students, staff, and the communities we serve as well as by the desire by these communities for a socially accountable medical course. In addition, the partnership between WSU and CSU will ensure that we continue to work towards reducing health disparities.
Staff and students at both universities come from diverse population groups and backgrounds. We celebrate and promote this diversity and acknowledge the great value it brings to our communities. A diverse population is better served by a diverse workforce that has had similar experiences and understands their needs. Diversity, equal opportunity, and inclusion are key values of the JMP to ensure that current and prospective students feel welcome, valued, and supported. The inclusion of diverse populations in the medicine student cohort enables all students to develop an appreciation in the value of studying and engaging with student colleagues of varying ethnicity, background, ability, gender, and age.
Disability is as an essential component of diversity across all population groups. The inclusion of people with disability in medicine is important for creating a better and more equitable health system by embedding individuals with lived experience in it. We firmly believe people with disability must be valued for their contribution to patient care, the community, and to the profession, and that no person should be excluded from studying or practising medicine on the basis of disability alone.
Thus, WSU and CSU medical schools are committed to facilitating an inclusive and supportive environment for students with disability by conducting fair, flexible, and equitable medical school admission and selection processes, and by actively fostering supports and accommodations to ensure that real or perceived barriers to success are addressed. Early, open, and constructive engagement and discussion at an individual and organisational level is critical to a) enable prospective students with disability make choices about a potential career, enter, and progress through training; and b) help the organisations to understand the abilities of the individual, the supports required, what is already available, any reasonable adjustments, and next steps to achieve that.
The School of Rural Medicine at CSU and the School of Medicine at WSU in conjunction with the wider university community will endeavour to support student well-being, whether disability pre-exists, develops during their medical studies, or is recognised for the first time while completing the JPM