March 18, 2016

Exceptional learning experience begins for regional nursing students

Bega campus nursing teaching facilities open.

UOW has officially unveiled its state-of-the-art nursing teaching facilities, part of a major investment into the Bega campus.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings CBE and representatives from the local community on Friday (18 March) celebrated the opening of the $1.5 million Nursing Clinical Learning Facility at UOW Bega.

The nursing facility includes a three-bed hospital ward to enhance the practical teaching and learning environment.

It forms part of Stage 3 of the campus development, which also includes new student support offices for counselling, careers advice, learning development and academic consultations as well as a new quiet study area.

The facilities received their first students at the start of the academic session this year, with 23 new nursing students enrolled to take advantage of simulated, yet close to lifelike, learning scenarios.

The nursing facilities, with local design and construction by architects Michael Marshman and Associates and Rankin Builders, have been developed in close partnership with the Southern NSW Local Health District.

Local health care provision has also been boosted with the recent opening of the new South East Regional Hospital in Bega, where UOW students will undertake clinical placements from this year.

Associate Professor Angela Brown, Head of UOW’s School of Nursing, said society faced significant health and wellbeing challenges and regional areas are more acutely affected.

“We have large demographic changes such as an ageing population and the increasing burden of chronic and complex diseases,” she said. “Regional areas have a secondary challenge in attracting and maintaining skilled healthcare professionals.

“UOW Bega has made a commitment to enabling a succession of regional nurses and these fantastic labs provide the opportunity, they might not otherwise have, for local people to become nurses and stay in the area they live in and love.

“The ongoing health benefits to the community from these students having daily access to a state-of-the-art training centre in their local region will be felt for many years to come.”

Professor Wellings said the $1.5 million development supported the health and education needs of the far south coast and demonstrated UOW’s ongoing commitment to high-quality education in regional areas.

“This new facility is a tangible demonstration of our strategy to transform how we teach as part of maximising student success,” he said.

“The technology in the Clinical Learning Facility provides an immersive environment and an exceptional learning experience that develops students for their future careers and critical roles in the health and wellbeing of those around them.”

The opening was also attended by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Joe Chicharo; Federal Member for Eden Monaro Dr Peter Hendy; Bega Valley Shire Mayor Michael Britten; and Southern NSW Local Health District Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Ms Nicole Tate.

Yuin Elder Aunty Colleen Dixon delivered the Welcome to Country ceremony.