March 2004

Resource centre gives nurses skills boost

Nurses throughout Victoria will have more opportunities to boost their skills following the opening of a new Nursing Resource Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the centre would mean better-trained nurses and a higher standard of care for Victorians using the health system.

‘This is about achieving the twin aims of encouraging a more skilled, more satisfied workforce and a healthier Victoria.

‘This centre’s extensive short-course program will meet the ongoing training needs of Melbourne Health nurses, as well as other metropolitan and rural nurses who would otherwise not have access to these specialist programs.’

Ms Pike said providing opportunities for continuing education had been shown to be a primary means of helping to retain trained nurses.

The opening of the centre continues Melbourne Health’s proud tradition in the area of nurse training.

Before undergraduate education was transferred to tertiary institutions in the early 1990s, the Royal Melbourne Hospital had the largest nurse training school in Victoria.

Ms Pike said the opening of the centre represented a significant milestone in the further development of ongoing nurse education in Victoria.

The centre provides support for ongoing nursing education at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels.

It will also provide clinical education for undergraduate medical students.

Ms Pike said the new centre would also play an important role in partnership with Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory.

This partnership is allowing Melbourne Health’s 22 Division 2 nurses to boost their qualifications by undertaking their Bachelor of Nursing by distance education.

The centre will provide clinical workshops and tutorials for the nurses undertaking the program.

She said this program would assist in easing the shortage of Division 1 nurses.