Course Overview

The Bachelor of Nursing aims to provide you with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to enable you to be a competent and effective Registered Nurse (Division 1) General. The course will prepare you to be reflective about your practice as a nurse and develop clinical reasoning skills in order to confidently and safely engage in contemporary nursing practice in a variety of environments and contexts and adapt to the needs of people from diverse backgrounds. You will acquire skills to provide person-centred care and collaborate with other members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team. You will be required to seek evidence to ensure safe quality practice and act in a professional, ethical and compassionate manner. In addition, you will learn to nurture the development of nursing as a practice discipline and demonstrate leadership in healthcare. You will explore how life-long learning skills can facilitate continuing professional development. The course will provide you with learning opportunities to meet the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) Registered Nurse Accreditation Standards (2019) and achieve the CQUniversity graduate attributes.

You will be required to participate in simulated learning activities in your nominated Clinical Learning Centre at one of the CQUniversity accredited delivery sites prior to being deemed eligible to attend professional experience placement. Across the course, you will develop an e-portfolio to showcase your abilities and facilitate career planning. You will be required to demonstrate nursing care that is person-centred, informed and responsible. Clinical learning is a key element of this course and you will be required to undertake 680 hours of professional experience placement in a variety of settings with different health organisations. You must meet specific mandatory health, safety and security requirements to be eligible to attend each professional experience placement. Professional experience placements may be limited in your community and you may be placed in other locations. Please be prepared financially and personally to cover the costs to relocate for placements. Due to the limited availability of placements, some block placements have start and/or end dates that fall outside standard term dates.

It is essential that you enrol in units in the order that they are listed. Not adhering to this may delay your progress and extend the length of your study. 

Inherent requirements
Inherent requirements are the fundamental abilities, attributes, skills and behaviours needed to complete the learning outcomes of a course, while preserving the academic integrity of CQUniversity’s learning, assessment and accreditation processes. You must be able to demonstrate that you have acquired or have the ability to acquire the inherent requirements for the Bachelor of Nursing course. There are inherent requirements for this course that must be met in order to complete the course and graduate. For more information refer to the Inherent Requirements area of the Handbook.

Special Requirements
Mandatory pre-clinical checks are required to be eligible to attend professional experience placement. Please note that these can be different for each State and Territory in Australia.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has a register of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing for the duration of their study. CQUniversity as the education provider will provide your details directly to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) for registration.

On successful completion of the Bachelor of Nursing, you will be eligible to apply for registration as a Registered Nurse (Division 1) General with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Prospective students should be aware that full disclosure of any issues of impairment or misconduct is a declaration requirement when applying for registration as a registered nurse. To be accepted for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, you are required to disclose: any criminal history, physical and/or psychological impairments and meet specific English language standards. For further clarification of these requirements contact the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Recognition of prior learning: Credit transfer will only be granted where you are able to demonstrate that tertiary-level studies, equivalent in content and depth to the CQUniversity course have been successfully completed. The normal maximum amount of credit you may be granted as a prospective student enrolling in the Bachelor of Nursing course is 72 credit points. Credit can only be granted for units and courses satisfactorily completed in the last 7 years at a recognised educational institution including the Diploma of Nursing. NB: Those applying for credit from a Diploma of Nursing must be registered as a nurse (Division 2) with the NMBA before any credit will be offered in a Bachelor of Nursing course. (Unit credit is subject to accreditation and registration requirements). Units where credit will be applied for an approved Diploma of Nursing are: NURS11164: Effective Communication in the Healthcare Environment, NURS11165: The Profession of Nursing, NURS11166: Health and Assessment, NURS11168: Determinants of Health and Primary Healthcare Nursing, NURS11169: Health Across Life Stages , NURS11170: Professional Experience Placement 1 (PEP 1) , NURS11171: Health, History and Culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, BMSC11010: Human Anatomy and Physiology 1.

If you are transferring from a pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing course from a recognised Australian educational provider, the maximum amount of credit granted will be 96 credit points of the course.

Refer to Credit Transfer for further details on the guidelines and application process.

If you successfully meet the entry criteria for the Bachelor of Nursing (Enrolled Nurse Pathway) the expected time to complete will be 2 years full-time or equivalent part-time for those starting in Term 1.  Students commencing in Term 2 will take 2.5 years to complete full-time or equivalent part-time duration.  
Maximum time to complete 7 years (to meet Recency of Practice and eligibility for registration as a nurse (Division 1) in Australia requirements [NMBA]).
Maximum leave of absence 1 year.

Professional Standards and Conduct

You are expected to behave in a professional and appropriate manner. The use of abusive language, threatening behaviour, misuse of campus property and sexual harassment, will not be tolerated. These misdemeanours will be treated as serious matters and may result in suspension or exclusion.

Please ensure that you are familiar with the Student Charter and Student Behavioural Misconduct Procedure, which is available on the CQU website. In addition, nurses and midwives must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), and meet the NMBA's professional standards in order to practice in Australia.

Registration standards define the requirements that applicants, registrants or students need to meet to be registered.

To ensure patient safety, nurses and midwives are deemed mandatory reporters and under National Law are subject to making notification about notifiable conduct.

It is important to be aware that complaints or concerns can be raised about the health, conduct or performance of a registered health practitioner or student at any time.

Career Information

In the final year of the course, students usually apply for a new graduate nursing position in a hospital and health service or other healthcare organisation where they will have the opportunity to further consolidate their knowledge and skills in nursing.  The broad nature of nursing and healthcare allows opportunities for employment and/or specialisation in environments such as acute hospital services, community health, mental health, residential and aged care, Indigenous health, and rural and remote health.

SECURITY REQUIREMENTS 
Working with Children Check - can take over 28 business days, you must apply at least 6 weeks prior to the mandatory check closing date.

Australian Federal Police Check - can take over 28 business days, you must apply at least 6 weeks prior to the mandatory check closing date.

CQU Student Declaration

CQUniversity Student ID

NB. Pre-WIL Compulsory Conditions can be outside of CQUniversity's control and are therefore subject to change.

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS 
Work Integrated Learning (WIL) - Professional Experience Placement (PEP) – An activity that integrates academic learning with its application in the workplace. In nursing, it is referred to as placement or professional experience placement.

Attending professional experience placement is not automatic. To be eligible to attend clinical placement students must satisfy a list of requirements known as Pre-WIL Mandatory Conditions or Mandatory Checks.

The pre-clinical mandatory check submission deadline occurs up to three months prior to the commencement of each term that you are enrolled in. This date is to ensure that your mandatory checks are in order before you are deemed eligible to attend, and are allocated a professional experience placement the following term. You should allow sufficient time to familiarise yourself with what is required of you and the timelines involved.

Pre-WIL Compulsory Conditions Closing Dates and Placement Release Dates

These requirements are set in accordance with the University’s approved:

· Vaccination Principles

· Work Integrated Learning Policy and Procedure

In addition, there may be student professional experience placement requirements specified by contracted industry partners.

It is your responsibility to keep these checks up-to-date and to adhere to the Pre-WIL Compulsory Condition requirements for your own safety and the safety of others during your professional experience placement.

Failure to complete all pre-WIL Compulsory Conditions by the publicised deadline will disqualify you from attending professional experience placement, and will significantly impact your ability to complete your course in your desired timeframe.

Once you accept your offer and have your student login details, you will have access to the Moodle site Nursing Central. Nursing Central provides a link to the Professional Experience Placement (Work Integrated Learning) Moodle site.

All mandatory check evidence must be submitted via the university placement management system SONIA.

A minimum of 800 hours professional experience placement in an off-campus health care setting is an integral component of the Bachelor of Nursing course. (Students may be required to complete more than 800 hours due to some organisation's make up time policy).  However, in the Bachelor of Nursing (Enrolled Nurse Pathway) credit will be applied for the first eight units of study.  Therefore, 120 hours of professional experience placement will also be credited, leaving 680 hours of professional experience placement. 

NB. You may be required to travel to complete your professional experience placement. 

Professional experience placements are organised in blocks of time as per the relevant unit requirement.  They are located in various health care organisations throughout Australia where a service agreement is in place, and are therefore not negotiable.