The head of Federation University’s Horsham campus has confirmed the institution is modifying its facilities and hiring extra staff to keep up with the number of enrolments in the nursing courses.
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Geoff Lord has told the Mail-Times it has doubled its intake of students commencing the Diploma of Nursing course from 2018.
“We are set to have over 100 students studying both Diploma of Nursing and Certificate III in Individual Support (Health) in the next few weeks,” Mr Lord said.
“Additional teaching staff have been appointed and extra teaching facilities are being reconfigured to accommodate the increase.”
Mr Lord credited work with Grampians Regional Public Hospital’s CEO Group Workforce sub-committee and the state government’s Free TAFE initiative with driving the interest.
It follows the Wimmera campus head telling a meeting of Horsham Rural City Council’s Community and Police Consultative Committee last month, one of the campus’ classrooms had been converted into a five-bed “training ward” for the benefit of nursing students.
Since 2016, some Wimmera nursing students have had to travel to Federation University’s campus in Mount Helen, Ballarat to finish their course, after the campus lost its accreditation from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council. Last year, ANMAC approved a modification that allows the Bachelor of nursing first and second year intensives to be delivered in Horsham.
“We are set to have over 100 students studying (health courses) in the next few weeks.”
- Federation University Wimmera Campus Head Geoff Lord
The institution has previously announced nursing academic staff from the Mt Helen campus will host blocks of intensive learning in Horsham once each semester this year.