New grads feel better about future of health
The latest defence in the battle to improve Queensland’s health system has been set in place with the graduation of the first group of nurse practitioners from QUT.
Six experienced registered nurses graduated from the university earlier this year with a Master of Nursing Science (Nurse Practitioner).
The qualification enables them to expand their clinical skills into areas such as: prescribing medication and treatment, referring patients to other health care professionals, and admitting and discharging patients from hospital.
For graduate Mary Fenech, who works at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, the biggest advantage of her new qualification is that it allows her “to work more autonomously and at the same time collaboratively”.
She said it would also improve access for patients to health services by “delegating some traditional specialist roles to trained and qualified nurse practitioners”.
“It will offer them more choice in terms of whether they wait to see a specialist or take advantage of seeing a nurse practitioner, who collaborates with the specialist anyway.”
Ms Fenech said the masters also enhanced her professional development and provided an alternative career path for nurses.
Associate Professor Debra Anderson, from QUT's School of Nursing, said nurse practitioners were able to extend their career paths beyond the traditional administrative and management routes on offer to registered nurses.
"Nurse practitioners will work across a broad range of health contexts such as emergency departments, working with older people and people with chronic diseases,” Professor Anderson said.
For more information about the Nurse Practitioner course or any other postgraduate nursing courses, contact QUT’s School of Nursing by phoning (07) 3138 3824 or visit our website