Grasping the Ongaonga: When will New Zealand really integrate rural clinical education?

Compared to Australia, substantial rural-based clinical education in New Zealand started small and still has some way to go if it is to fulfil its potential in workforce retention and recruitment to under-served areas. The authors share some of their experiences in rural medical education and then speculate on how it could develop. They discuss the merits of a clinical school composed of a dispersed network of rural sites, which provide and coordinate rural health education.