Development & Opportunity

Western Health has a huge variety of educational and professional development options for our nurses and midwives. This includes:

scholarships
education and learning opportunities
leadership development opportunities
early career programs
post-graduate programs

Check out the news down the bottom of this page for the latest opportunities.

Scholarships:

There are a huge number of internal and external scholarships and grants available to our nurses and midwives, including:

Internal:

Each year Western Health offers the following grants and scholarships:

Research:

Education:

Joy Turner Memorial Scholarship program financially supports our point-of-care nurses/midwives who are involved in local quality improvement initiatives, to attend a health-related conference
Our post-graduate scholarships are open at the start of each year, and also mid-year.
Our EN to RN scholarships are open at the start of each year, and also mid-year.
Tippet Trust scholarship is a generous scholarship offered to one outstanding candidate that has applied for a Western Health post-graduate scholarship.

Please see our Recognition page to see the recipients of these grants and scholarships.

External:

Australian Nurses Memorial Centre scholarships – applications close each September.
Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust Grants – applications close each October.
Australian College of Nursing scholarships – applications close each March and October.
Women’s Healthcare Leadership Scholarships – applications close each November.

Education and Learning:

To provide Best Care, our Education & Learning Unit is committed to offering programs that continually develop the capabilities and skills of our nurses and midwives. Western Health aims to provide work based education and training for staff, students and external applicants which will support excellence in practice and career progression opportunities. We are pursuing multi-disciplinary approaches, patient-centred care and lifelong learning. All programs utilise the services of suitably qualified and vocationally experienced educators and clinicians.

A large selection of short courses, on-line learning and training is available via Western Health’s WeLearn.

Leadership Development:

Nursing & Midwifery sponsors a wide range of programs designed to develop our managers and leaders, irrespective of where they are in their career. We also have programs designed to support, develop and enhance our clinical leaders in their roles.

The current programs are available:

Transforming Leadership Capability (TLC) – for Unit Managers
Advancing Frontline Management (AFL) – for Associate Unit Managers
Management Masterclasses
Nurse Practitioner Clinical Leadership Development
Clinical Nurse/Midwife Consultant Clinical Leadership Development
Clinical Educator LEAD program

Please click here to view the 2024 leadership program timetable.

Grad+:

Western Health had the most applications in our history for the Grad+ in 2023. This is really positive with more and more nurses and midwives wanting to come and join the team.

The new program commenced in 2022, with all our early career nurses and midwives now participating in the Grad+ program. We think that we’re onto a winner, and that this will get even more people interested in starting their career at Western Health.

The program is a 2 year program, that will include 4 rotations, with the second year including more rotations into specialty areas. The program also includes 2 free Western Health post-graduate subjects that are accredited with 5 universities focusing on advanced clinical assessment, pathophysiology and clinical leadership.

The program is the first of its type, as far as we are aware, and has been specifically designed to offer benefits to our early career nurses and midwives that include:

Offer an entry to practice program that provides wider experience to different clinical specialties, to create well-rounded nurses and midwives with diverse experience in their early career years.
Support our nurses and midwives to be able to have broader experiences and options available to them prior to choosing their preferred specialty
Embed a culture of life-long learning through supporting the continuation of formal education into the early career years
Make post-graduate education more accessible and affordable for our nurses and midwives
Increase participation rates in post-graduate education, by offering 2 free subjects as part of their early career years.
Enhance Western Health’s status of an employer of choice for newly graduated nurses and midwives.

Free Nursing & Midwifery Study:

Western Health has ensured that our eligible nurses and midwives have had optimal access to scholarships and training support available from the Victorian Government.

The packages offered include:

Enrolled Nurse to Registered Nurse
Scholarships will be offered in 2023 and 2024 for enrolled nurses employed in Victorian public health services to undertake a transition/conversion ‘diploma to degree’ course (e.g., program of study leading to registration as a registered nurse) over two years. The full scholarship of $11,000 will be provided to candidates over four years, consisting of $2,500 per annum for two years of study, $3,000 per annum for two years of employment following completion of study while employed in a public health service (minimum 0.6 EFT or equivalent pro rata). Scholarships will be offered in two cohorts: 1,000 scholarships for nurses commencing studies in 2023, and 1,000 scholarships for nurses commencing studies in 2024. Public health services will administer the funding to their employees. If you are an Enrolled Nurse wanting support to undertake study to become a Registered Nurse please contact you Director Nursing & Midwifery.
Refresher Pathway: Scholarships and support for nurses and midwifes to re-enter the workforce
Refresher programs provide a supported program of education, clinical teaching and ward-based learning for nurses and midwives who are current registered but have had a break from work in a hospital setting and want to ‘refresh’ skills or upskill in a particular clinical setting. This funding will provide scholarships and support for 225 nurses and midwives per annum across Victoria to return to practice in public health services via the refresher pathway.
The refresher pathway is designed for nurses and midwives who are currently registered but who lack recency of practice. Nurses and midwives can undertake refresher training, including up to eight weeks of clinical placement time at a public health service. This pathway is appropriate for nurses and midwives currently holding non-practicing registration in Victoria, as well as other nurses and midwives with full registration but needing recent clinical practice in health services.
Additional postgraduate nursing positions in specialty areas
Nursing and midwifery postgraduate scholarships are provided to public health services to support registered nurses and midwives to undertake postgraduate study, in areas of clinical practice where there is an identified workforce need. This funding will increase both the number and value of scholarships provided to nurses and midwives undertaking postgraduate studies in 2023 and 2024. This will contribute to building capability in the nursing and midwifery workforce, particularly in intensive care, emergency, oncology, midwifery and other areas of high need. To be eligible for these full scholarships you need to enrol in one of Western Health’s post-graduate clinical programs prior to the census dates. The value of this scholarship will cover the out-of-pocket course fees for the postgraduate qualification. Funding will be distributed to each health service for the nurses and midwives that are undertaking one of the health service’s post-graduate courses that have a structured clinical component (within the speciality area and as evidenced through the university/health service course curriculum) of at least an average of 24 hours a week and a dedicated clinical educator and/or clinical support staff, employed by the health service.
Support for new Nurse Practitioners
This funding will enable Western Health to support nurse practitioner candidates, grow the number of nurse practitioners and meet future needs across the system. A total of 50 candidate packages will be offered across Victoria each year for two years (that is, 2022-23 and 2023-24) to support new NP candidates. This includes health service support for nurse practitioner candidates ($30,000 per candidate) to contribute to health service costs, and a scholarship support for nurse practitioner candidates (up to $12,000 per candidate) to support education costs associated with completing the qualification. Western Health received support for 4 new Nurse Practitioner Candidates in 2023.

Postgraduate Education and Scholarships:

Western Health in partnership with respected Victorian Universities, offers postgraduate programs for nurses interested in developing their knowledge and skills in specialty nursing practice.

We also provide generous scholarships to support our nurses and midwives to undertake post-graduate education.