National Review of Nursing Education

Contents

Executive Summary

The present study was commissioned for the National Review of Nursing Education. This is the second of two national studies commissioned to map in detail nursing education programs and to profile and make future projections regarding graduates from undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education courses in Australia.

The first study was undertaken in 2001 by Deakin University School of Nursing under the auspices of the 2001 Evaluation Investigations Project titled "Nursing Education and Graduates: Profiles for 1999, and 2000 with projections for 2001". This project sought data on nursing education within Australia in order to improve the accuracy of nursing education databases and to strengthen the ability of DETYA to provide advice on workforce planning. Issues that arose from that project included differences in data sets for undergraduate nursing courses in Australia and the complex process of attempting to tease out and accurately quantify postgraduate specialty courses when a trend towards postgraduate generic courses was evident. Approximately 26% of postgraduate domestic student enrolment data were reported utilising a generic nursing course category.

The purpose of this study was, therefore, twofold. Firstly, this study validated and extended the existing database developed in the previous study mapping in detail the full range of undergraduate programs offered by tertiary education providers across Australia that lead to an initial qualification and entry into nursing practice.

New data about the following was sought:

Undergraduate nursing degrees (both three-year and four-year courses);
Double/combined nursing degrees;
Courses offered by private universities;
Four-year bachelor degrees that concurrently provide both initial nurse registration and preparation for specialty nursing practice;
Courses that facilitate ‘fast-tracking’ of students for initial nurse registration with previous tertiary or nursing studies,
Hours and configuration of clinical experience in undergraduate nursing courses.

Data were reported on an institutional basis providing quantification of the total number of students and graduates, as well as the various configurations and levels of all undergraduate courses leading to entry into nursing practice. Undergraduate completion numbers for 2001 nursing graduates was validated and projections for 2002 established.

Secondly, this study validated and updated the existing database to map in detail the full range of postgraduate nursing courses across Australia. This study identified and reported by State and institution all postgraduate nursing courses that were 6 months or equivalent of full-time study or greater in duration.

New data were collected on:

Four-year bachelor degrees that concurrently provide both initial registration as a nurse and a specialty nursing practice focus;
Specialist postgraduate courses including Graduate Certificates, Graduate Diplomas and Masters courses leading to specialty nursing practice;
Courses leading to, or validation of, Nurse Practitioner specialist practice.

This study ascertains numbers of students who have completed and are due to complete postgraduate nurse education courses for the year 2001 and estimates for 2002. Data is reported on an institutional basis providing State profiles of each nursing specialty, to facilitate workforce planning.

This project was conducted in three stages with completion of ethical approval processes from within Deakin University. The first stage involved updating the existing database of nurse education providers, both in the tertiary sector and the private sector together with courses currently offered. An Advisory Team was constituted comprising representatives from peak nursing bodies to advise the project team.

The second stage involved the collection of data from identified institutions via an electronic survey. This included the refinement of a survey tool developed and utilised in the initial DETYA study ‘Nursing Education and Graduates’ 2001. In the initial study, the framework and classification system identified by Russell, Gething and Convery (1997) was utilised for postgraduate courses. This study utilised workforce specialties as the overriding framework. Postgraduate workforce specialties were developed in consultation with the Advisory Team to ensure they captured both workforce specialties and information pertinent to current workforce planning requirements. Following implementation of the survey, a follow-up process by telephone was used to seek information from those institutions that did not initially respond and to clarify any obscure issues.

The third stage involved the analysis of all the data and the compilation of a report that was submitted to the Advisory Team for comments and clarification.

The major findings of the study are:

The findings broadly validate the data of Ogle, Bethune, Nugent and Walker’s (2001) national study conducted in 2001. The projected student completion figures for 2001 for undergraduate nurses, correlate closely with those confirmed as student completions in the present study. Whilst there is some variation across specialties and States in postgraduate projected and reported 2001 completions, overall the results are comparable. In most cases the projected completions were slightly higher than the actual reported completions. This will have implications for the interpretation of the projected completions for 2002.
The total number of undergraduate pre-registration nursing students has risen in most States from 2001 to 2002 with the exception of Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory. Only two States, South Australia and ACT, have projected a decrease in the number of completing undergraduate pre-registration nursing students from 2001 to 2002.
The range of off-campus clinical experience hours and on-campus laboratory clinical hours in undergraduate pre-registration nursing programs varies considerably across universities. The hours range from 600 – 1100 hours for off-campus clinical experience and 50 – 300 hours for on-campus laboratory clinical experience.
The postgraduate data reveal that the high dependency and midwifery broad-band nursing specialties are the largest categories of postgraduate nursing study within Australia. Collectively, 44% of postgraduate nursing students in Australia are enrolled in these two specialties.
Across Australia, projected postgraduate completions for 2002 in all broad-band nursing specialties are higher than those reported for 2001.
For the new broad-band category of Indigenous health that was created in the present study, it was found that only one university offered this program of study and that very few students were enrolled.
In New South Wales, unlike other States, there is large non-university educational provider of postgraduate specialty nurse education (NSW College of Nursing). When the New South Wales non-university student data was combined with the university student data, the number of students in the broad-band specialties of high dependency and medical/surgical increased by more than 200%.
The postgraduate broad-band nursing specialty of high dependency was broken into eleven sub-categories. It was intended that this would provide more meaningful data for workforce planning purposes. It was found that no students are currently enrolled in the cadiothoracic sub-category.

Contents

Return to the Top of the Page

Any comments or queries should be sent to: wwweditor@dest.gov.au

This page was last updated on Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Department of Education, Science and Training
Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia
DETST Web Site Privacy Statement
Disclaimer

National Review of Nursing Education

Nursing Education and Graduates Part 2

Executive Summary