Qualifying To Practice Nursing In Australia: Requirements And Challenges

Requirements for Internationally Qualified Nurses

Discuss about the Transition of Nurses in Australia for Health Sector.

To be a qualified practicing nurse in Australia, an individual must have gone through the nursing qualification process either in the country or in another country and becomes an internationally qualified nurse (Faggian, Corcoran, & Rowe, 2016). An internationally qualified nurse needs to undergo three stages in order to be allowed to legally and legitimately operate as a nurse in Australia.  The three stages include;

According to Fedele (2018), to be able to move to the Australia to practice nursing, one must meet the basic requirements of the two Australian boards; the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, a process that entails five phases as explained bellow. Establishment of identity which involves submission of a range of related documents. Australia being an English speaking country, the applicant should know the language and meet the proficiency standards of English language. This is achieved through successful completion of at least score of seven in each and every part the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination which include; the components are four, namely listening, reading, writing, and speaking (Aryadoust, 2016). Or one is required to have a score of grade A or B in each of the four components of the Occupation English Test (OET).  Also one should meet the current standards set by the Australian nursing and midwifery education.

If the applicant is a qualified nurse in United Kingdom, The US, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore with a Bachelor’s degree or diploma and a registered nurse the Australian system would automatically deem him or her as qualified to work in the country (Lees & Lal, 2017). Additionally, the individual must be able to provide prove that he or she has been practicing nursing or midwife for a required period defined by the approving boards before submitting the application request.

Issues of good conduct and discipline are met by one being able to prove his or her fitness to practice nursing in Australia (Morauta 2015). The applicant must demonstrate that he or she has no bad records to do with disciplinary cases currently or previously undertaken against him or her, that there are no injunctions nor restrictions leveled against him or her due to mental incapacity, physical incapacity. The board ensures that the applicant has no criminal record that may prevent him or her from being a nurse in Australia. 

Basic Requirements for Nursing Practice in Australia

Any candidate who meets the above mentioned requirements and standards are required to submit their application to regulation body, through the Australian embassies or through the website, to be able to be considered for approval (Walton-Roberts, Bhutani, & Kaur, 2017).

Upon completing registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), the applicant then needs to acquire a VISA in order have a permit of working in the country (Thomas, Schubert, Whittaker, & Sébastia, 2018).  An applicant can be sponsored by the employer under which he or she would require any of the following types of visa: for a considerably long period of stay, the applicant would need   Temporary Business for long stay, Employer Nomination Scheme, which is a permanent Visa, or regional sponsored migration scheme
An independent applicant can acquire their Visa through under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) which is a provision of the country’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship.  

A student nurse in Australia will have to undergo proper training and qualification procedures so as to be accredited and permitted to practice nursing as a qualified nurse (Coyne, Rands, Gurung, & Kellett, 2016).  This involves several stages that include the in class lessons plus practical sessions that make the student finally be able to practice the career. The transition process for an individual to graduate from a nursing student to be able to be registered by the regulatory boards is always accompanied by many emotions, excitement, happiness as well as anxiety and the fact that one does not know what future holds. This is the time when graduating nurses do question almost everything; ranging from their personal ability until trying to establish whether the career choices they made were correct (Lees & Lal, 2017). Another point that rise in most cases is whether they will be able to achieve like the nurses whom they partner now in their new ward.

Those who have the experience refer to this transition process as an unexpected turn of events reality shock, but decide to face the mantle. There are only a few other occupations apart from nursing that present the added chance that you have control over other people’s life. But the students are encouraged not to fear as all the other every nurse, at one point or another, had gone through such experience (Doiron, Hall, Kenny, & Street, 2016). It is a common feeling among newly graduated nurses that they are insecure and not sure that they are able to be registered as a nurse, and so many issues to come up due to this feeling which only serve to worsen insecurity feeling.

Transition Process for Nursing Graduates

Some parts of the course seem easy and normal in theory but very scary when the practical comes. New graduates in nurse or midwife do have a frightening experience when they face the practical part of their career and the fear to make making a mistake and not being good enough for the job, as well the failure to meeting own expectations. They work so hard and trying so hard at every moment to draw everything together and execute the time management, prioritizing on the changing situations. Lees and Lal (2017) stated that they feel they cannot do it faster or better than they are, but struggle with the idea of fitting in, of being considered part of the team, and of being trusted by colleagues. They end up suffering a lot in case of a small mistake. Many people think more hospital experience is required. Some students come out and have not been on an acute ward for months. Therefore they lack critical thinking skills. Most universities are seen as providing more online learning rather than face to face lectures, training in such critical fields should be face to face to offer the much needed confidence (Morphet, Kent, Plummer, & Considine, 2016). If the idea that at one point nurses graduated are able to hit the ground running was ever true, given a whole lot of things outside our control equity/ length of hospital stay but unfortunately it is certainly not true now. 

At some point new nursing graduates find themselves in situations of taking care of patients whose conditions worsen with (Johansson & Wiklund-Gustin, 2016). Such circumstances cause tension to the nurses who are in most cases have no enough experience, and end up feeling that the patient’s deteriorates due to their incompetence.

Nursing career is a demanding task sometimes a challenging one to those who are new in the field. Time management is one of the areas that have proven challenging to new graduates, balancing between job and personal life within the ever limited time.

Making decisions at some critical circumstances become challenging to most of the new nurses. For instance, situations that are life threatening to patients do bring a lot of confusion to new graduates as they end up mixed up between emotions, the feeling of incompetence and medical practitioner requirement.

A nursing career in an area full of unforeseen happenings such as losing a patient after trying all you can ta save him or her. Such events are sometimes very emotional and most new nurses find it difficult to come over them (Lees & Lal, 2017). They do have the guilt of they could have done more and maybe they lost the patient due to their incompetence. Such feeling do have a long term effects of them and even negatively affect their entire career if not assisted.

Challenges Faced by New Nursing Graduates

The transition process sometimes fail to provide adequate mentorship and coaching services to the new nurses, who can assist them in combating the challenges they face during the early stages of their career (Phillips, Kenny, Esterman, & Smith, 2016). Random workplaces may do enjoy availability of some free support and mentoring offers that staff can use, and organizations such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, and Nurse & Midwife Support are also able to support a new nurse in cases of need. But in cases where such services are lacking, the new nurses face a lot of challenges. 

The desire to achieve more in one’s career can be a challenge to most of the graduates. This mostly happen when they are deployed in rural health centers where there are lesser exposure as compared to where they undertook their training (Philips et al, 2016). Working in an environment with accessible support enable the new nurses to have a sense of satisfaction and improve their performance, presenting any grievances or concerns they may have during the transition process. It allows fast identification of potential problems and managed properly and this is important in reducing anxiety and stress.

The interaction between newly graduated nurses and some participants in the industry can be messy as some senior players tend to oppress them. The bullying take different dimensions such being made to work beyond their required limit, working in areas they did not specialize in, and some are forced to work for more hours than the recommended time (Kowalchuk 2018). More PEP would be great not because of clinical skills as such, nursing is becoming a more specialized area of study though there is not much point in this as a rule, other than to meet the students desire to gain new experience. It is really important to respect each and every one, some new nurses have bad experiences during my placements (Lees & Lal, 2017). Later on sometimes feel sick and even leave the course at my final placement, they try to get some support but not possible. At the end, they may speak up but no one cares. They end up shocked to see such a bully nurse or facilitator and tend to discourage other people aspiring to do the course.

Some students mostly from other countries experience difficulties in copping up with the societal norms in Australia. This is due to the fact that some behaviors may seem normal and accepted in other parts of the world, but are unaccepted in Australia (He, Lopez, & Leigh, 2017). More PEP would build confidence against culture shock, it also gives the student the opportunity to start to form locally accepted habits in line with clinical thinking, PT care, communication and reflective practice. This is a process that desperately needs to be in place prior to graduation, but unfortunately there is still so much process driven practice in the system that is presented to new nurses under the guise of time management. 

Importance of Mentorship and Coaching Services

The new graduates need support from the interested parties to help them cope with the challenges they face in their new positions and ensuring a conducive transition process (Stankiewicz, & O’Connor, 2015). The above mentioned program may be very helpful in providing the much needed support to graduates.

Preceptor programs helps in improving the performance and instilling more productive results in the half of their first year in work and transitioning period to a registered nurse, to reduce culture shock as well as linking and integrating theory and practical aspects of the career (Liaw, Wu, Chow, Lim, & Tan, 2017). Preceptor programs enables new workforce to be in good terms with the older colleagues so as to gain experience that improve their confidence, and competence in taking care of the sick people. The mentioned programs help them in personal, career and professional growth, as well as providing guidance role to the new members of the workforce.

As elaborated by Hains (2017), supportive environment is one of the key factors that ensure success in the process of transition. A supportive environment do provide the new members with the much needed window of opportunity develop their career skills in their roles as managers of the sick and clinical roles, which in turn improve their performance.. This process, is therefore important in encouraging more confidence in the nurses’ ability to perform their duties. Being part of a supportive environment enable the new nurses to feel comfortable, presenting any grievances or concerns they may have during the transition process (Liaw et al, 2017). It allows fast identification of potential problems and managed properly and this is important in reducing anxiety and stress.

And about the current workforce changing their culture, facilities that focus on zero tolerance on bullying and also value education/ teaching make it much better for graduates who face it and only talk about it at the critical points when are under excess pressure on them (Gore & Rickards, 2017).  Even as an experienced nurse it is so much enjoyable to work in an environment where a supportive culture is the norm so it must have a huge impact on the new graduates.

If a new member of the medical staff embraces the art of planning, he or she would find most of the operations smooth in the workplace (Stankiewicz, & O’Connor, 2015). Planning should be practiced both at personal level and at the management level. Proper planning reduces time wasting as such cases as friction between various levels of employees would be reduced.

Impact of Working Environment on Nursing Practice

Taking it as a personal responsibility to take care of yourself is an important virtue that the new nurses should embrace. Self-care basically refers to taking steps towards being safe, not exposing yourself to environments that may be harmful (Hersh, Godecke, Armstrong, Ciccone, & Bernhardt, 2016). This standard would be a vital component during the transition as would eventually reduce the cases of harm or suffering due to negligence. 

Some other applicable plans that would help reduce the negative incidences during the transition process, may include: enough workforce in heal facilities, proper communication in workplace, good leadership and effective management of the facilities, appointment of leaders with proper skills in employment relations, supportive and responsive structures and support networks, combined support when handling serious medical cases in the hospitals as well as proper orientation for new workers (Hersh et al. 2016).

Additionally, if any new member of the health fraternity meets difficulties in his or her early job life, the nurse should seek assistance from the regulators of the health sector, and labor related support (Stankiewicz, & O’Connor, 2015). The mutual understanding, good clinical education in University lab, clinical placements, really need a good support or mentor, good facilitator who are broad minded, more patience with compassionate, good educator is important. And as the saying goes, “If you can’t help others, at least restrain harm others”

The transition process for an individual to graduate from a nursing student to be able to be registered by the regulatory boards is always accompanied by many emotions, excitement, happiness as well as anxiety and the fact that one does not know what future holds (Smedley, Morey, & Race, 2017). This is the time when graduating nurses do question almost everything; ranging from their personal ability until trying to establish whether the career choices they made were correct. Another point that rise in most cases is whether they will be able to achieve like the nurses whom they partner now in their new ward. But if the transition process is well undertaken, the experience is much fulfilling. 

Reference

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Bullying and Oppression of Newly Graduated Nurses

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