New Nursing Education Hub Established in the Heart of Brisbane
CQUniversity has today unveiled a new nursing and midwifery clinical education space at the Brisbane CBD campus located on Ann Street.
The new eight-bed facility was officially opened by State Minister for Education' the Hon Grace Grace MP at an event attended by industry partners' CQUniversity educators and students.
The facility will be the only clinical education space of its kind in the heart of the City and will allow more than 400 nursing and midwifery students to complete their pre-clinical practice training every year.
The learning space is designed to provide students with a realistic learning environment and is set up to simulate a hospital environment to prepare student nurses and midwives before they step into a live clinical setting.
The new facility was established to support the ongoing education of the University's nursing and midwifery students in South East Queensland following the closure of the University's Noosa campus in 2020.
CQUniversity's Dean of the School of Nursing Midwifery and Social Sciences' Professor Moira Williamson explained that the University delivers its nursing and midwifery courses online to hundreds of students in the South East and that the new facility would allow those students to attend their pre-clinical education at a central location.
"With changes to our campus network in 2020' our students based in the region provided feedback that they would like to see a facility established in Brisbane so that they would not have to travel to our campuses further north (in Townsville' Rockhampton and Bundaberg) to complete their practical units.
"Many of these students balance their studies with work and family so travelling long distances to attend on-campus classes can be difficult from a logistical and financial perspective.
"In order to support these students' CQUniversity made the decision to develop this new facility in existing space on our Brisbane campus'" Prof Williamson said.
CQUniversity's Associate Vice-President for the South East Queensland Region' Mr Chris Veraa' said that the addition of the new clinical education space would help to provide students from the greater South East region with even more flexibility.
"With many students based in greater Brisbane and on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts' this facility will provide them with great flexibility and a central location that is well serviced by public transport links.
"The location will also be convenient for interstate students as they will not need to organise transfers or connecting flights to campus locations further north".
Along with the delivery of pre-clinical education for undergraduate and postgraduate students' Mr Veraa said there were now also options for the University to offer additional course offerings in the health space at the Brisbane campus.
"This facility will allow us to look at delivering additional health courses' particularly in the short course and vocational space'" said Mr Veraa.
The new facility has been accredited by the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC).
Students commenced classes in the facility this week.
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