Hi, I'm Amanda I'm a lecturer at the school
of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work here at UQ
and today I'm here with Leon and he's a nursing student and we're going to
answer some of your questions.
Okay, it looks like I've got the first question.
What are some of the coolest jobs your former students are doing?
There's lots of people who have amazing jobs in big hospitals but there are also
lots of people who are doing really cool sort of stuff in like
little left field areas like cosmetics
and in research and in primary health care.
I like hearing back from students who are doing
things that are new that are like 'oh wow, we do that, nurses do that?'
So yeah it just goes to show how much a variety of jobs you
could be doing as a nurse. Yeah it's not just
the hospital. Okay Leon, I have the next question.
What has been the most unexpected thing
you have been happy to discover at UQ? What I did not expect that was a very
happy experience was we had an opportunity to do
international placement. Oh yes, where'd you go?
We went to India and we were there for
about a month and a bit. Initially it was scary but it was one
of the best experiences in my life. When was that? Second year.
So in your second year you went to India
and spent over a month doing a nursing placement there? Yes, the
health care system is quite different to us.
Yeah that's amazing. Yeah it was quite amazing. What opportunities do your
students have to get hands-on experience in our industry? So
in the Bachelor of Nursing one of the things that sets UQ apart from other
universities that offer a similar degree is that
you start placement in your first semester of your first year
and so Leon you know this
you get started alright that first placement is in the first semester of
your first year so you're going into the hospital and
you're applying some knowledge that you've learned and you're truly
getting to see what it is like to do that job. For me, the initial
placement was a bit nerve-wracking because it was
just I think week four into the first semester. How old
were you when you started? I was 18.
I was 17 when I started my Bachelor of Nursing. I was 18 and the first placement was
really amazing because I had quite amazing clinical supervisors
over there they're coming in checking on
us how are you going how you're finding this and all that
yeah so it was very very very amazing because like yes this is what I really
want to do. So what have you learned about yourself
since you began your studies at UQ? Initially I wasn't sure what
side of nursing I wanted to do so I was like i'm just going to do my nursing
just work but I thought I actually really
enjoy this and I want to do more for my
communities. That makes me so excited, honestly that's such a good answer.
I'll be back for my master's. That is what
like for me as an academic that's what I want I want every nurse that I
start to teach in an undergrad bachelor, to think about that as the first step in
their career. In this career this is not something
that you're just doing this bachelor just so you can get this job so you can
do that for the rest of your life. This is step one and then you're gonna
go and do your master's and then you're gonna go do some research then you're
gonna do your PhD and you're gonna be Dr leon and then you're gonna sit here
and then someone else is gonna sit there and you'll be able to be like...
'So what have you learned about yourself Leon?'
How do you prepare students for the future
when we don't know what the future looks like?
The important thing to understand is that healthcare is
always evolving and the kind of things that we need to focus on
as health professionals is always changing and adapting
and therefore the biggest things that you need to be able to do
and the things that it's my job to teach you how to do
is developing this thing called resilience, it's developing the skills to
come across a problem and not see it as an obstacle, to see it as
our way to grow and to see it as a way to be creative, 'all right, okay
here's something that's in front of me I've never dealt with it before
but I have these other skills and I've dealt with
similar issues before maybe I can adapt something that I've done previously
to allow me to create a positive outcome here'.
Oh this is a good one, okay what do you think
employers in your industry are looking for
and how do you think UQ has equipped you with these skills?
I think employers want graduates who are able to reason clinically very
well, who do put the patient safety first
who are compassionate and are able to
be leaders in their own practice, yeah which I feel UQ has prepared me
very well with that and I would agree that is what I want
you to feel like when you leave here I want you to feel like
you are going to be the patient advocate, you feel strong in your skills
you want to lead. What makes a good student
and are they the same things that make a good job
candidate? What makes a good student is someone who has a desire to learn
but understands that studying is hard so having that passion is paramount. You
need to come with that, you need to come in here and remember that
a passion needs to be there but then you need to understand that it's not going
to be given to you you have to be ready and willing to
adapt, to grow and to understand that not
everything is going to go your way and I do think that they are
the same things that employers want. Alright,
what are the most valuable skills you've learned as part of your degree?
Definitely leadership is one of the top ones I've learnt.
Creativity, I need to be creative, compassion
and empathy is actually a skill as well.
Self-empathy or empathy for everybody else? Empathy for everybody else
and yourself as well it's also important for first of all you
can't always be hard on yourself when you do fail
or yeah you also have to feel for yourself you can't feel anyone else's
cup up if you don't have a full car yes that's true. If you could give me
one piece of advice that will set me apart as a job
candidate, what would it be? So this advice would go
for all graduates, it doesn't go just for nurses so my advice would be
when you finish your degree and you're sitting in the thing and you're watching
everybody else pick up their piece of paper
and they're all picking up the same piece of paper as you
right they've all got the same degree as you
and then every other uni around here has the same ceremony with their same
hundreds of students going out with their same piece of paper as you
and so you have to think it's not about this piece of paper
that you've achieved it's what you have what do you have that nobody else has
what are your special things that make you Leon
and make you totally the most highest quality candidate for the place
that you want to work what is it what do you have and then you
need to be able to market that you need to be able to be like this is
what I offer and no one else has it everyone else has their piece of paper
good for you but I got this and no one else has got
what sets you apart what sets you apart what is special
about you and often when you say that to someone
what's special about you though oh i have nothing special
no nothing special and that's the thing that sets you apart is the people who
have taken the time to think what do I have to offer what is my
special thing what does no one else have that I have
and then when you go into your interviews
it comes through you show them that's great advice.
What does a day in the life of a health and behavioral sciences student
look like? Of course showing up to the lectures.
Some people do take it for granted but
it does help with if you've got a question
or don't understand anything and then hang out with your friends okay going
lunch then doing another lecture because usually you'd have like two
lectures in one day yeah so for our degree for nursing
normally you have your lectures pretty much on the same day
and then on different other days what have you got going on on different other
days so I'd have placement I think twice a week on campus
and twice a week on placement and so that's the other difference with UQ
isn't it is that we have the integrated placement and so one day you might be
coming onto campus having lectures and your integrated learning which is
like your tutorials or your clinical skills
so you might come on to campus here at St Lucia or you might go into the
hospital, into one of our teaching spaces and then other days you'll go to
placement and you work you do your eight-hour shift
just like everyone else I think that's
the end. I think I'm done.