The University of Newcastle has crunched the numbers over 12 years and found more of their physio students were taking rural placements.

The proportion of students taking up a rural placement almost doubled from 2003, growing from 22 per cent to 40 per cent of students.

Higher assessment marks were the outcome for the students taking the plunge into rural practice, the study showed.

One of Tamworth’s newest physios, Jennifer Vickery, grew up in Wollongong but said there was a variety of work in the country the city didn’t provide.

“In the city, a physio might just focus on one area of the body, like foot and ankle or shoulder work,” she said.

“In rural areas, you could get paediatric work with a five-year-old, up to an 80-year-old with severe arthritis.

“There’s a very broad mix.”

Physios choosing to work in the bush are becoming more common, but the majority are still ending up in the city.

Ms Vickery, who has been working at North West Physiotherapy on Carthage St, said wider career opportunities and lifestyle factors were probably driving the majority of graduates to the city.

Ms Vickery could not pin down Tamworth’s most common injury, but she said there was a distinctly different demographic visiting the physio west of the divide.

“There’s a lot of farmers coming through with things like dislocated shoulders, compression injuries and fractures,” she said.

“In the city, there are more white-collar injuries, mainly from weekend sport.”

University of Newcastle department of rural health director Dr Leanne Brown said the results were very encouraging.

“It’s very positive because it shows students aren’t disadvantaged by going to rural placements,” Dr Brown said.

The director said attitudes toward rural allied health were changing with more and more students getting exposed to working in the bush.

“There are still some things that they can’t do rurally, but they are pleasantly surprised with the wide variety of things available,” she said.

The study showed more people are still choosing metro settings for placements which is due to a number of factors, Dr Brown said.