Becoming a Nurse: Everything You Need To Know

Nursing is a fundamental profession to modern health care; it is a career that is highly valued and respected, and that requires an individual who is a hard worker, compassionate, can communicate effectively and can remain level-headed in challenging situations.

As nursing professionals are in the health care and social assistance category, this suggests that the National Disability and Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will continue to enhance the industry’s employment growth. The help of the NDIS, along with supplementary government expenditure, indicates that there will be an estimated 119,000 healthcare workers by the year 2024, making this sector the economy’s largest with a total of 1.8 million workers.

Registered Nurses are responsible for providing care to patients not only in hospitals but also in aged care and other health facilities, along with the general community.

Registered Nurse Duties

Top 5 Skills for Registered Nurses

• Active Listening – 82%
• Social Perceptiveness – 82%
• Service Orientation – 80%
• Speaking – 80%
• Coordination – 78%

Employment by State

The state of NSW shares the largest percentage of workers in the Registered Nursing field with 31.3%. A close second is Victoria, sitting at 24.9%. Explore TAFE in Melbourne.

If you’d like to learn more, click here to read why studying nursing is the key to a rewarding career.

Midwives are responsible for providing care, assistance and advice to women throughout their pregnancy, labour and childbirth. They also tend to postnatal care for both mothers and babies. Midwives can work in a variety of environments, such as hospitals, the home, the community, health units and clinics.

Midwife Duties

Top 5 Skills for Midwives

• Active Listening – 82%
• Critical Thinking – 82%
• Social Perceptiveness – 82%
• Speaking – 82%
• Active Learning – 80%

Employment by State

Again, NSW outranks all other Australian states, holding 37.1% of all jobs in this industry. QLD comes in third with 13.3%, SA fourth with 11% and WA fifth with 9.1%. Explore TAFE in QLD, TAFE SA and training courses in Perth here.

Midwifery is a form of Complementary Health Therapy. Learn about Complementary Health Therapist job outcomes here.

Dental Nurses are responsible for preparing patients for their dental examination. They assist Dental Practitioners, Hygienists and Therapists in delivering treatment to patients.

Dental Nurse Duties

Top 5 Skills for a Dental Nurse

• Active Listening – 70%
• Reading Comprehension – 68%
• Speaking – 68%
• Critical Thinking – 62%
• Service Orientation – 62%

Employment by State

For Dental Nurses, QLD ranks on top with 25.3% of jobs in the industry, then VIC (24.6%) and NSW (24.5%). Interestingly, although Tasmania is sitting on 4.3% of the overall share of workers, the state’s average for all occupations is 2%. This means that the share of Dental Nurses in Tasmania is more than double the percentage of all occupations. Explore TAFE in Tasmania here.

Medical Technicians are responsible for operating anaesthetic, cardiac, operating theatre and medical testing equipment, along with assisting with laboratory testing and filling prescriptions with the help of Health Professionals.

Medical Technician Duties

Top 5 Skills for a Dental Nurse

• Active Listening – 78%
• Reading Comprehension – 70%
• Critical Thinking – 68%
• Speaking – 68%
• Science – 65%

Employment by State

For Medical Technicians, Victoria holds the highest share of workers with 32.3%, then NSW (28.7%) and QLD (18.2%) to make up the top three states.

A Diploma in Nursing course is the perfect stepping stone to help you to build your career in nursing. If you’ve always wanted to work in an industry that is meaningful and provides a strong sense of purpose to all of those who are involved, then a nursing course is a great starting point for you.

Blended learning flexibility allows students to study in a way that best suits them – with a portion of the course delivered online, students are given the option to study their nursing course anywhere, anytime.

To find out everything you need to know about studying Nursing, as well as where it could take you career-wise, who better to ask than a fellow Nursing student? We sat down with Bronwyn to find out more about her experiences studying nursing as well as what motivated her to pursue a nursing career.

What are you studying at the moment?

How are you liking your study?