Beverley shows the way for former nurses keen to restart their career
Published on 28 November, 2012
Many nurses take a break to have families or to try new career options, however they need to refresh their skills before coming back into what is a fast-changing profession...
Former nurses who are keen to return can now apply for a Registered Nurse Re-Entry to Practice Course offered by distance education, with online study.
This CQUniversity course can arrange clinical placements in the applicant's home region. It's the only course of its type in Queensland and the only one in Australia available via distance education.
Among the pioneering cohort for this new course in 2012, Rockhampton's Beverley Lay was the first to gain re-registration and is now considering job offers.
Ms Lay left nursing almost 10 years ago to raise her children and establish a business but she was missing the profession.
As part of her re-entry course, Ms Lay joined 17 other students for clinical skills workshops at CQUniversity Noosa Campus.
When the students compared notes, they found they had more than 300 years of combined nursing experience across 50 different specialities. That's experience that would be wasted without the re-entry course.
"The course was handy to find out about new drugs being used and new laws relating to our profession, and the online study helped with computer skills," Ms Lay says.
Beverley Lay considers her career options as a newly re-registered nurse
"However nursing itself is like riding a bike. You don't forget."
CQUniversity's course has been approved by the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency (AHPRA) and was also accredited via the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC).
A fresh round of $6000 scholarships open to Re-Entry applicants will be available early next year. Details will become available soon via the Australian College of Nursing website http://www.rcna.org.au/WCM/ or direct via THIS LINK.