Hello and welcome to Flinders University.
I'm Associate Professor Pauline Hill,
and I'm the course coordinator for the Bachelor of Nursing.
I was also a student here at Flinders University
when I first learned to be a registered nurse.
After that time, I went and worked
at a major metropolitan hospital.
I taught there, I've taught elsewhere.
I've been to conferences overseas.
I've taught overseas
and I've had an amazing career, actually.
I've enjoyed every minute of it.
And I would highly recommend nursing.
Nursing and midwifery are two individual professions,
but often related.
Many people are nurses and midwives.
Some people are nurses.
Some people are midwives.
You can do each of them individually,
or you can do both.
I'm a nurse.
I'm not a midwife,
but many of my colleagues are both.
They're both amazing professions.
They are fast-paced.
They're interesting.
There's never two days the same.
You get to work with people at the most important phases
and stages of life,
right from conception, through to birth,
right through to old age
and everything that happens in-between.
You can do it here in South Australia,
Australia, anywhere in the world.
And this degree helps you to do that
no matter where you want to go with your career.
You can do nursing in a whole range of areas and spaces.
More than just a hospital,
but community health settings, GP practices.
It can be in people's homes.
It can also be in the armed forces.
Lots of places employ registered nurses.
And there's lots of areas that you can work.
You can do your undergraduate degree
and then go on and specialise into areas
that you may be interested in.
Or perhaps you'll be working somewhere
and recognise you want to do some further study
and you can do that with us here at Flinders as well.
A career in midwifery is much more than birthing babies.
You'll be doing a range of things
from conception through to antenatal education
and support.
Working with women when they deliver
during their pregnancies, post-delivery
and helping them to manage their new brand new baby
in those first few days.
It's an exciting career that can take you around the world.
And lots of areas employ midwives, not just hospitals.
When you complete your midwifery qualification,
you can go on to further study,
whether it be in education, clinically,
management, leadership.
It's a whole range of things that you can do
and advance your career with specialisation in midwifery
and other areas as well.
Flinders University is a leader in health and care
in nursing and midwifery.
We've been doing nursing here at Flinders University
for over 40 years and midwifery for over 15 years.
And in both professions, we were early adopters
for direct entry degrees
in both of these degrees here at Flinders University.
In fact, leading the nation in this area.
Both the Bachelor of Nursing
and Bachelor of Midwifery are accredited
with the Australian Nursing
and Midwifery Accreditation Council.
Our graduates are able to register
in both of those professions
with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
Our course has to be accredited.
And all of our staff who teach
in the course are all registered
in those professions as well.
Both the Bachelor of Nursing
and Bachelor of Midwifery have placements
as part of their course.
We have great relationships with our industry partners,
both here in South Australia, in the rural areas,
as well as interstate.
We also undertake placements in the Northern Territory,
through our Flinders NT sites
in Alice Springs and in Darwin
and in some of the remote locations.
We also offer some global opportunities
where we apply for funding
and we have groups of students who travel overseas,
Vietnam, China, Indonesia,
and undertake experiences there
and sometimes placements, too.
We have staff who work really closely
with our industry partners
and in fact, some have shared or joint appointments
between the University and those places.
The Bachelor of Nursing is also offered
at our Renmark campus or Riverland campus,
we sometimes refer to it as.
It's exactly the same program.
And we have a small cohort of students and staff
who are there full-time at the Renmark campus.
Here at Flinders University,
we have amazing state-of-the-art laboratories.
In those laboratories, we use a range
of what we call low-fidelity and high-fidelity equipment.
We have mannequins.
Sometimes we use the high-fidelity simulation
where the mannequin talks back to you as a student
and tells you that they're feeling unwell
or they moan or groan,
or sometimes their heart stops
and you have to know what to do.
We also have a mother who can give birth
for those of you doing midwifery
and knowing how to manage that.
We have a hollow lens, which is an amazing piece
of equipment that enables you to look inside the human body
and see the nerves, the arteries,
the blood vessels, the heart,
and really understand how the body works.
We also have a staff member who dresses up,
makes out they're an old man,
even though she's actually quite a young woman,
and she will walk around in amongst the laboratories
and talk to you as if she's one of the clients
that you're looking after.
So you better be ready for that.
You never know when it's going to happen.
When you're in the laboratories,
it's an opportunity for you to practice
what you need to learn before you go out on placement.
So we try to make that as real or simulated,
as we say, to the real thing as possible.
That gives you an experience
and then the confidence and the competence
for when you go out on placement.
The Bachelor of Nursing
and the Bachelor of Midwifery are offered
in a combination of on-campus,
online sort of education,
where you can read things prior to coming to class,
and then you can do things in a classroom together.
You can do them in groups.
You can do them in the laboratories.
And that's both here at the Bedford Park campus
and at our Renmark campus for nursing
and here at the Bedford Park campus for midwifery.
The teaching is flexible
and suits a range of learning styles.
And we often refer to the flipped classroom
where some things are done in a classroom.
Some things are done at your own home where you learn,
and then come back to the classroom
to discuss with the tutors, with the other students
that are studying with you,
and you share your ideas and your understandings
to really clarify, to make sure you're comfortable
with your learning before you go out on your placements.
Both nursing and midwifery are highly respected
and highly valued professions.
That's because of the ethics and our code of conduct
and our professionalism.
They're the sorts of things you'll learn about
in the courses and the sorts of things
that you'll see role modeled by the staff
that are teaching you
and the staff that you work with out in field,
wherever that may take you on your placements.
One of the great things here at Flinders
is that we're a big team.
We work together.
We work in teams
because nurses and midwives work in teams.
You get to know the staff,
you get to know each other.
You'll form lifelong friendships.
In fact, some of the people I taught are now my colleagues.
I still have lifelong friends from when I very first started
as an undergraduate student nurse quite a long time ago.
So if you're the sort of person who likes to help people,
and you're curious about how the body works,
then maybe a career in nursing or midwifery is for you.
Thank you for visiting Flinders University.
And I look forward to welcoming you here on campus soon.