UC awarded $2m to train more health professionals
Commonwealth funding worth $2 million will see more nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians and pharmacists develop the hands-on skills.
They will need these skills to progress in their careers.
The University of Canberra was today awarded grants for three projects that have found new ways for health professionals to complete the clinical placement component of their studies.
Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon announced the funding on a visit to the University’s Faculty of Health this morning.
University of Canberra dean of health Professor Diane Gibson welcomed the injection of funding, which she said would help overcome a severe shortage of clinical placements for students.
“By creating 154 new clinical placements, these grants will help us get more nurses, midwives, dieticians, physios and pharmacists out there caring for our community, where they are needed most,” Professor Gibson said.
“University of Canberra health courses are popular with students and our graduates are in high demand, but the constraint to getting more graduates into the workforce has been the availability of clinical placements. We are finding innovative new ways to create placements for our students and prepare more health professionals to hit the ground running in the workforce.
“We are looking forward to working with our partner organisations to deliver these innovative programs.”
The largest grant of almost a million dollars will fund the establishment of a new rural clinical training stream at the University of Canberra. This will support new rural health components in the University’s nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy and dietetics programs. The funds will also see new staff employed at hospitals in Cooma, Goulburn and Queanbeyan to supervise 80 new placements, including 48 placements for nursing students.
A second grant of $400,000 will fund student-led clinics on campus in both physiotherapy and dietetics. The clinic will focus on primary health care and follows the successful trial of a student-led physiotherapy clinic late last year. The clinic allows students to deliver low cost treatment to patients, under the supervision of trained physiotherapists and dieticians and will create 38 new placements.
The third grant of more than $600,000 will see teams of first, second and third year nursing students helping to run wards in three partner aged care facilities in the ACT under the supervision of qualified staff. This grant will create 36 new clinical placements for nursing students.