QLD opens first re-entry to practice course

Nurses in Queensland seeking to return to the workforce will now have access to the state’s first re-entry to practice program to reregister as a nurse.

CQUniversity has launched the state’s first re-entry program for nurses seeking to return to the workforce.

Deborah Austen, acting director of the Centre for Professional Health Education, said Queensland nurses who have been out of the workforce for more than five years will no longer be locked out of employment.

The course, which is to be delivered by distance, has enrolled its first cohort of 17 nurses, and has already attracted a waiting list of a further 120 nurses.

Austen said many experienced nurses have not been prepared to travel interstate to undertake the training and have been employed outside of nursing.

Queensland has been the only state in Australia not to offer a re-entry program to nurses which is necessary to meet national recency of practice standards for registration.

The online 10-week program will cost $9000 to complete but nurses can apply for a $6000 re-entry scholarship offered by the RCNA.

Austen said older nurses had been overlooked in the graduate nursing boom but increasingly employers were identifying a demand for experienced staff.

The accreditation of the Queensland course follows the recent decision by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services to discontinue Tasmania’s only re-entry program. CQU’s next intake will take place in October.

For further information visit www.facebook.com/CqUnicphe or contact [email protected]

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