La Trobe to start nursing courses mid-year at regional campuses
In a bid to ease the critical shortage of nurses, La Trobe University has announced a mid-year intake of nursing students at its regional campuses.
La Trobe University has stepped up its efforts to solve the critical shortage of health workers in rural areas by opening a mid-year intake for nursing degrees at its four regional campuses. Up to 130 students will commence studies at La Trobe’s Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton and Albury-Wodonga campuses in July this year, the first time this has occurred.
Jane Mills, dean of La Trobe’s Rural Health School, said the mid-year intake was particularly aimed at enrolled nurses who wanted to became registered nurses through a two-year degree course. “There is such demand for graduates in the regions,” Professor Mills said.
The expanded nursing places are part of La Trobe’s health innovation strategy which plans to boost the number of students in health courses by 4,800 (full-time equivalent) by 2030, taking the total number of health students to around 13,000.
Professor Mills said La Trobe “had ambitions to be the pre-eminent supplier of nursing education” in Australia”.
She said that the university was currently the second largest healthcare in Victoria and fourth Australia-wide.
Melissa Deacon-Crouch, the nursing and midwifery discipline lead at La Trobe’s Rural Health School, said the mid-year intake meant that students didn’t have to wait until next year to start a nursing course.
“The simple truth is there are just not enough nurses available to serve our communities at the moment and we want this to change,” Associate Professor Deacon-Crouch said.
Students in nursing courses will benefit from the federal government’s new $319.50 a week payment for nursing students doing their mandatory clinical and professional work placements.
This so-called “prac payment” begins in mid-2025.
La Trobe University has won accolades for its health care initiatives, including being named as a Problem Solver Award finalist in the inaugural Shaping Australia Awards for a project it participated in to improve midwifery care for First Nations women, and being named as a Future Builder Award finalist for running a program to assist children with vision difficulties through the La Trobe Eye Clinic.
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