Nursing students ready to serve the community

Document Type

Media Release

Publication Date

Spring 1-11-2006

Publisher Name

The University of Notre Dame Australia, Broome

Publication Place

Broome

Abstract

Fifteen nursing students from The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Broome Campus have received the traditional Notre Dame Blessing of the Hands by Campus Minister Jill O’Brien sgs.

The students were due to embark on their last clinical placements, their final component of the nursing degree, and the blessing was a way of wishing them well on their individual journeys.

“The blessing symbolises the hands as being an essential component in the caring nature of the nursing profession,” said Nursing coordinator Mrs Sally Clark. Fellow students, lecturers and friends gathered to witness the ceremony that also included words of praise from Broome Campus Deputy Vice Chancellor Sr Sonia Wagner sgs.

The third year students will be placed throughout Western Australian hospitals including Broome, Kununurra, Onslow, Carnarvon and Geraldton were they will experience critical care in both emergency and high dependency units.

Others will be placed with the Royal Flying Doctors Service in Port Hedland and Derby.

During the ceremony many of the students spoke about reaching such an historic point in their career thanking lecturers and acknowledging how their personal approach had made a difference to their education.

Studying at the Broome Campus also provided the students with the opportunity to be placed in some of the most remote places in the country including the Kimberley communities of Balgo, Mullan, and Billiluna.

Students will now have the opportunity to provide essential health services across the country. Some have chosen to continue their studies by undertaking further qualifications through Graduate Nursing Programs in Perth, Alice Springs and the Eastern States. Locally the Broome Health Service has offered five placements for Graduate Programs for 2007 and the 2006 nursing cohort represent the largest number of nursing graduates in the Campus’ history and similar numbers are expected again next year.

Enrolled Nursing will also be offered on the Broome Campus for the first time in 2007.

“Enrolled nursing will not only fill a void in the workforce but will also offer a pathway to higher education, an area acknowledged as lacking in the Kimberley,” Mrs Clark said.

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