Nursing, Paramedicine & Midwifery
Undergraduate Nursing & Midwifery brochure
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Nursing & Midwifery
Nursing and Midwifery at ECU encompasses a range of specialist undergraduate courses in Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery and Nursing Studies.
Along with state-of-the-art health and wellness facilities featuring demonstration wards and simulation suites, students have access to a range of training methods and programs that make our nursing courses unique, including intensive clinical skills workshops and regular health simulations that promote scenario-based learning using human patient simulators.
ECU's Outstanding Health and Wellness Facilities
Our purpose‑built Health and Wellness building incorporates health simulation suites and demonstration wards that provide a safe, authentic environment for clinical skills development, all designed to increase the competence and confidence of students.
The demonstration wards contain 52 beds and meet Australian healthcare standards.
Students have the opportunity for experiential hands-on practice to learn nursing and midwifery skills in a variety of simulated healthcare settings.
International Community Placement
Our Nursing program offers students the opportunity to undertake a community placement overseas, where they are able to work in a different healthcare system and
experience health from a diverse cultural background. Currently, community placement opportunities available to students exist within Thailand, Laos, the Philippines and Tanzania.
Midwifery Students Gain First-Hand Experience Off-Campus
Every year, Nursing and Midwifery double degree students have the opportunity to attend the Cyril Jackson Health Festival, conducted at Cyril Jackson Senior Campus in Bassendean.
The event provides students with the opportunity to learn about pre‑conceptual health, antenatal care, birthing and postnatal care for both mother and child.
Students have access to cutting edge equipment, including birthing simulators, Newby (simulation newborn baby), empathy bellies (pregnancy bellies) and an abdominal palpation torso for listening to the foetal heartbeat.
Factors distinguishing our Nursing program
Our undergraduate Nursing program is distinctive as it links the following three areas of activity that are directed at complementing and strengthening clinical development for undergraduate nursing students:
- Clinical training innovations including health simulations using actors and full human patient simulators, scenario-based learning, intensive clinical up-skilling, clinical skills workshops and resources such as DVDs for self-directed learning
- Clinical competency assessment relates to the delivery of a competency development framework which means that students are well prepared with the skills and competencies required for the level and context of care in which they find themselves when on 'prac'
- Clinical partnerships and industry collaboration encompassing a unique arrangement whereby the School has strategic alliances with metropolitan and rural hospitals and regions, as well as the private sector, for undergraduate nursing students to undertake their clinical placements in the one setting.
A Perfect Circle
Bachelor of Science (Nursing) graduate Sarah Pavlenko is one of the world’s first IVF quintuplets and, in 2011, commenced employment at the very same hospital in which she was delivered!
Sarah works in the neonatal intensive care unit, applying the skills she obtained throughout her Nursing degree to help care for WA's ill and at-risk babies.
"My ECU Nursing degree helped me help people in need."
"My aunt died in a hospital in the Philippines due to a lack of proper care, so I wanted a degree that could help make a difference in the world. With ECU's overseas partnership I got the chance to work in rural parts of Laos. We had very basic equipment, if any to work with, and our patients needed so much more than we could provide. However, practicing nursing in another country was an experience I will treasure for years."
Joanna Hume
Nursing graduate
ECU Nursing: Offering Graduates Amazing Employment Opportunities
Twenty new graduate Registered Nurses who completed their undergraduate nursing degrees at ECU have successfully gained positions in the graduate program at Joondalup Health Campus. Eleven of these students have elected to continue their relationship with ECU by enrolling in the postgraduate Graduate Certificate in Transition Nursing whilst participating in their hospital based graduate course. Similar links exist between ECU and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital for new graduates.
These healthcare facilities also have strong links with ECU in their postgraduate specialty courses, including cardiac, renal, ICU, paediatrics and oncology nursing. The bipartisan agreements between these facilities and ECU ensure postgraduate students have the best of both the academic and clinical support staff to assist them in their studies.
Research Aiming to Improve the Profession
Improved nurse staffing levels were associated with a 25 per cent decrease in the rate of patient deaths, according to a study conducted by ECU's Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Postgraduate Medicine, Professor Di Twigg. The research entitled, "The impact of nursing hours per patient day (NHPPD) staffing method on patient outcomes: A retrospective analysis of patient and staffing data", was conducted over a four‑year period starting in 2002 when a new staffing method (NHPPD) was first implemented.
This research is one of the first studies to examine this specific nurse staffing policy. Nurses play a vital role in terms of enabling the early detection and prompt intervention when patients' conditions deteriorate. The ability of nurses to initiate actions that minimise adverse events and negative outcomes for patients is directly linked to the hours of care provided. Professor Twigg says the research argues that the number of nurses is important to patient safety and strategies must be developed to ensure an adequate nursing workforce. This must be recognised as a shared responsibility between policy makers and the nursing profession. The findings of this study are supported by similar findings internationally and both extends knowledge and improves the quality of life for Australians and people around the world.
Producing Award‑Winning Students and Community Members
Nursing student Jodie Atkinson studied full‑time whilst juggling a part‑time job and caring for her children.
Not only was she amongst the Top 100 Academic Students at ECU in 2009, she also recently won The City of Joondalup Award for Community Service for her outstanding contribution to the local community. What’s more, Jodie has returned to ECU to undertake a Postgraduate Diploma in Midwifery.
The largest, most progressive Nursing Program in Western Australia
Our undergraduate Nursing program is unlike any other in the state of Western Australia. Students have access to state-of-the-art facilities that encourage scenario-based learning, including access to cutting edge simulation suites that can be transformed into a number of settings, from emergency departments, operating theatres, intensive care and hospital wards, to birthing suites, consulting rooms, and hospital in the home.
In addition to our Joondalup Campus facilities, the ECU South West Campus boasts the most sophisticated nursing facilities in regional WA.
"Postgraduate education is an essential component of maintaining the credibility of nursing as a profession."
"In terms of career progression, postgraduate study has become a prerequisite for appointment to senior positions. However, with a full-time job, husband and three children, I needed a course that would fit in to both home and work, as work/life balance is a priority to me. The ability to complete the course off-campus was therefore of great value. Whilst the idea of online learning can be quite daunting the actual experience was enriching and the support, encouragement and words of wisdom from the module tutors and my research supervisors was excellent."
Janet Jones
Master of Nursing graduate