Australia has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, and nurses are the backbone of this industry. To work as a nurse in Australia, you must be registered or enrolled by the nurse regulatory body in the State or Territory in which you wish to work.
You are capable of registering with these nurse regulatory bodies after successfully completing any number of nursing courses, from a University facilitated Bachelor of Nursing, to an enrolled nurse course from a privately run nursing college or TAFE.
Once working as a nurse there are numerous opportunities to further your study, or increase your qualifications with adult learning. Refresher programs for registered nurses educate students on new discoveries, practices and up-to-date information that is extremely useful for a working nurse. Dave Drayton asked Carla Cutrone, a registered nurse with the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service a few questions about these courses.
Dave: What opportunities do these courses offer?
Carla: The completion of postgraduate nursing courses such as a Masters in Nursing mean you are able to get better jobs such a Clinical Nurse Consultant or a Clinical Nurse Educator.
Dave: Are there any other adult learning courses that nurses could complete at a hospital or nursing college?
Carla: Colleges and hospitals offer nurse training as part of the reconnect program, which isn’t really a course as such, but a way to re-train and re-introduce nurses back into the workforce. It’s really productive because the majority of the time reconnect leads to full time employment within the hospital or affiliated hospital that hosted the program.
Dave: What does a bachelor of nursing course involve?
Carla: A Bachelor of Nursing involves the study of the pathophysiology of the human body, patient interacting and care, skill based learning and working as an “Assistant in Nursing” under the supervision of a nurse facilitator within a local hospital. In third year the student choses an elective out of a wide range of subjects such as indigenous health and do their major in either, geriatrics, pediatrics, mental health and medical surgical.
The course can be done part time over six years or full time over three like I did. There are similar excelled courses for those who have a medical background, which only take two years full time study.