Nursing

My name is Jacqui Pich and I am the Course Director of Undergraduate Nursing here at UTS. The Bachelor of Nursing at UTS is a program that leads to graduation and registration as a registered nurse. We have two programs that each year we have a three year standard program and a two year accelerated program, and that programs for people who are already enrolled nurses and registered with OPRA, which is our regulatory body in Australia. 

Students can choose from majors in the Bachelor of Nursing Programs, and these occur in third year in the final session of study, and they're what we call introduction to specialty practice subject. So to give students a bit of a taste of clinical areas they might like to work in, and so they will have the opportunity perhaps to do pediatric nursing, mental health, nursing, perioperative nursing.

We also have critical care, nursing I global health amongst others, and we review these each year and they consist of classes in labs, but also we attach that to your final placement as well, just so you can get a you can get some practical experience working in that area. So students who complete a Bachelor of Nursing at UTS can expect to access really great facilities.

So our clinical labs and our clinical simulation facilities are really second to none. And the equipment and the experiences that students will have really from their very first session are second to none. So a lot of hands on practical experience in the labs. Students can also expect to complete their clinical placements at a range of the really top hospitals in Sydney and surrounding areas, and they'll complete up to 840 hours working on the floor with registered nurses.

They'll also complete theoretical subjects and we complete these in small groups and larger groups. We have large collaborative spaces, lots of group work and interactive work and really working with your peers because working in teams and groups is part of nursing, they can also expect to work with a lot of really respected and experienced academics and clinicians. So Professor Tracy Levitt Jones, for example, who actually distinguished Professor, it's one of the most highly cited and published nursing academics in the world and who developed the clinical reasoning cycle which we use in the program.

And she's actually very hands on. So you'll get to meet her. She does lectures for us, but also will pop into classes and meet students in working groups with them as well. So another great selling point. So basically if you come to UT's, she's going to be coming to one of the best, if not the best nursing program in Australia.

There are lots of career opportunities for registered nurses. So typically at the end of your studies you would complete a new graduate year where you just get some practical experience, heads of registered nurse in a clinical environment, and that might be in the government facility in New South Wales Health, It might be one of the private facilities or a specialist facility like mental health or perioperative nursing.

So you can have a career as a clinical nurse and become a clinical nurse, specialist, nurse, unit manager, those type of things. But you might also decide that you're going to do research and you might pursue that. You might think that you want to work in policy. Registered nurses make up the largest percentage of the health workforce are really important that we're in leadership positions, but also lots of fun areas that you can end up working.

So you might end up working on a cruise ship as a registered nurse or an escape theater or something fun.