Nov 10, 2009, 09:17 pm
Hi Danielle,
Melbourne Uni now have a different teaching model to the other Australian Uni's. They have stopped offering specialised bachelor degrees, e.g. Bachelor of Nursing, and instead students now study for a more general degree, e.g Bachelor of Science, and where appropriate choose related subjects in their third (and maybe 2nd, not sure?) year before going to to study for a specialised Masters Degree, e.g. Master of Nursing. So to become a nurse at Melbourne Uni now takes 5 years and you come out of it with 2 degrees, whereas at other uni's you would study for the normal 3 years (or 4 with hons) Bachelor of Nursing. The 2 year Masters degree at Melbourne is essenitally equivilant to doing a 3 year Bachelors degree everywhere else, except the study days are longer, the work load is higher, placements occur alongside study and there is an extra semester between years 1 and 2 - so you do pretty much the same amount of work but in a shorter period of time.
I already graduated from a bachelors degree back in '96... wow feeling kinda old now I've typed that in!! so was able to apply for the Master of Nursing. I'm realistic that it is going to be a tough couple of years and expect to be on here whinging like a child!!! but from my perspective I want to be back out in the work force as quickly as possible as I have 3 kids to feed so the MNSc is right for me, but not necessarily the best fit for everybody. Plus I like the idea of the 'natural progression' going from a Bachelors degree to a Masters. Having said all that, I wasn't sure that I would get an offer so applied for Bachelors of Nursing at other Uni's through VTAC and SATAC and applied for Div2/EN at the local Tafe and sat the vetassess and stat tests!! One way or another I was definitely going to start a Nursing course in Feb!
Ian.
