New Nursing and Allied Health facility at Hervey Bay TAFE

The number of health care professionals studying on the Fraser Coast is about to quadruple, and political leaders have toured the new centre that will make that possible. Find out what this means for the region:

From practice rooms to real life mannequins, a new Hervey Bay training facility for nursing students is like no other.

The $1.32m Nursing and Allied Health facility at Hervey Bay TAFE will open for students in two weeks.

Skills and Training Minister Di Farmer said the new facility meant three to four times more nursing and allied health professionals would be able to train in Hervey Bay.

“We know that there has been a 40 per cent increase in demand for health and related services jobs in Hervey Bay, that’s against a national average of six per cent,” Ms Farmer said.

“So the demand here for nursing jobs, for people working in disability care and aged care, is enormous.”

New Nursing and Allied Health training facility at Hervey Bay TAFE.

Features of the new nursing facility include practice rooms, “real life” mannequins that can simulate diseases and be diagnosed, as well as treatment and medication rooms.

There are even “bathing mannequins” so students can learn how to handle a patient in a washing or bathing situation.

“It is just like a real hospital...” Ms Farmer said.

TAFE Qld People, Culture & Services director Steve Cathcart said the facility would enable students to be “job ready” when they get into the workforce.

“Our student numbers have grown significantly year on year, I believe we’ve had over a 25 per cent increase in the students enrolments in the last two years,” he said.

“So the ability for us to be able to cater for more students is really fundamental in our ability to meet the supply requirements in this area.”

Some of the “real-life” mannequins at the new nursing facility at Hervey Bay TAFE.

Hervey Bay MP Adrian Tantari said the “state-of-the-art” facilities would not only enable health staff to train in Hervey Bay, but go on to then work in the facilities and local hospitals.

“We know that with our aging community and our health requirements in this community that we’re going to need more and more nurses as Hervey Bay grows,” Mr Tantari said.

“We know Hervey Bay is one of the fastest growing regional areas so having this facility available to locally train our nurses for our hospital is going to be a great thing for Hervey Bay in the future.”

There are two wards in the building with 14 beds as part of the new Nursing and Allied Health training facility at Hervey Bay TAFE.

Hervey Bay TAFE student Kaye Bernadette said the “hospital-like” facilities would help her to not feel daunted when she entered the workforce as a nurse.

“If we have this emergency situation, I would have a knowledge that I know how to deal with this, because I already did this in this facility,” she said.