education level and why i chose it
As many of you may know, I am a Registered Nurse in Australia. This is a University degree, so I have a Bachelor of Nursing (BN). To get into University, I had to complete High School to Year 12. There were certain subjects I needed to complete for my Higher School Certificate- maths and science (biology at a minimum). We also had to get a certain mark in the University Admission Index. (The UAI is awarded to students on the completion of the HSC in NSW. It provided a percentile ranking of peer students of the same age. In New South Wales, the UAI was determined by a combination of the public HSC exams common across all schools at the end of Year 12 and continuing assessment.)
I attended Sydney University. We were not on Main Campus; we were about a 10-minute walk away. It was nice to be on a small campus only for nursing students, but I did miss the atmosphere of the main campus. It is a 3-year degree, and we had practical placement each year. We had 4 weeks practical in 1st year, 6 weeks in 2nd year, and 8 weeks in 3rd year.
I love my job. I chose to go to Uni and get a Tertiary Education as I wanted to get started in my career. And I was in the groove of studying and didn’t want to lose the study momentum. I could have been an Enrolled Nurse first, but I was impatient and wanted to start working! This is a 12-month course at TAFE (Technical and Further Education). In hindsight, maybe I should have gone the TAFE route to get more practical experience, but I learnt a lot on the job once I started work. And I don’t think I would be a Community Nurse now if I didn’t go to university.
sorry that the image is no great… it was taken from another photo!
I also have a Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care from the Australian Catholic University. This was an online course. I did this while I was working in Palliative Care at the time. I love this area, providing holistic care to patients and their families when they are at one of the worst times in their lives, being diagnosed with a life-limiting illness.
I am a certified Death Doula through Australian Doula College. I only finished and received my certificate mid-June.
I also have a Certificate 3 in Animal Studies. I did this before COVID, and got my practical experience at Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.
