Benefits and opportunities
Nurses and midwives are the largest clinical workforce in Australia, making up more than half of Australia’s health workforce.
Nurses are essential health care professionals who care for people in all health and aged care settings. There are several different types of nurses in Australia. These roles are determined by the type of training they have done and their scope of practice. These include:
- enrolled nurse
- registered nurse
- nurse practitioner.
Nurses can work in a range of settings, including community health, primary care, universities, education and research, correctional facilities, schools and aged care and hospitals.
A midwife is a registered health professional who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, birth and the first few weeks after birth. Midwives may practise in any setting including:
- the home
- community
- birth centres
- clinics or health units, including Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
- public and private hospitals.
Find out more about the different types of nurses and midwives in Australia
Education and training initiatives
There are several initiatives to support nurses and midwives in their education, training and development.
- Commonwealth Prac Payment
- Aged Care Transition to Practice Program
- Aged Care Nursing Clinical Placement Program
Incentives and programs for nurses and midwives already in the industry
Scholarships
There are scholarships available to support your nursing or midwifery education and training.
- Health Workforce Scholarship Program
- Primary Care Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship Program
- Puggy Hunter Memorial Scholarship
- The Lowitja O’Donoghue Foundation Nursing Scholarship program
Videos
Hi, my name's Katie.
I'm a proud Camille Roy Gomeroy woman.
I am born and raised in the Tamworth area.
My role in primary care is as a registered nurse practise nurse in a clinical setting.
I'm so for me as a nurse, what I find rewarding is obviously I love to, I love to look after people, I love to look after mob.
I love to care for people, heal people.
It's just I see myself as as a healer and, you know, helping other people heal on there, their journey.
That's probably the biggest rewarding thing for me.
And what took me into my nursing career was that desire to want to help other people.
Yeah.
I think it's really important to see our mob representing in these sort of roles, whether it be nurse, midwife, doctors, healthcare workers, you know, to be addressing barriers and inviting people into a culturally safe space where they know that they're going to be looked after and supported by a mob.
They're going to be educated by a mob to make informed decisions about their healthcare.
I think particularly for registered nurses, there is a lot of opportunities.
There's a lot of specialty areas that you can branch into.
You know, it doesn't have to be just general nursing.
There is so many other pathways.
It sort of opens the doors for you whether you want to continue on study, whether you just want to work in a certain area, you know, you have the freedom to do that and move into different spaces.
So for anyone considering a role in primary care, I, I strongly recommend it.
Like I think we definitely need more mob in our Aboriginal medical services, in Primary Health care in general.
I really, really strongly encourage a rewarding career of like, helping our mob.
So you ought to be part of the new generation of nurses.
Let's chat about it.
As a nurse practitioner, I'm triaging patients in an advanced role, so I'm diagnosing, treating, prescribing and referring to get patients the best care possible.
What's been the most surprising thing for me is the impact that nurses have in the community.
They remember what you say and what you do because you're the constant for them when there's lots of other doctors and other things around.
So you are making the most impact on your patients when you see them.
The best reward is seeing the patient outcomes, getting them to achieve what they want in their health, and being able to mentor nurses in primary care to become nurse practitioners as well to get same patient outcomes.
Primary care allows you to have the opportunity to do all different types of nursing and you never have a boring day.
There are many ways to get into primary healthcare, so come join the team.
Primary healthcare offers so much more than you think.
As a midwife, you'll be the support system new families need.
Discover what primary healthcare has to offer.
Join the team authorised by the Australian Government Canberra.