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:

Clinical 2 Manager – for Unit Managers
Advancing Frontline Management (AFL) – for Associate Unit Managers
Management Masterclasses
Nurse Practitioner Clinical Leadership Development
Advanced Practice Nurses/Midwives Clinical Leadership Development

Please click here to view the leadership development programs.

Grad+:

Western Health’s Grad+ program is growing each year, with more and more nurses and midwives wanting to come and join the team.

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.

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.