Nursing and midwifery programs - health sector

Eligible midwives and collaborative arrangements

In partnership with the 3Centres Collaboration (Mercy Hospital for Women, Monash Medical Centre, The Royal Women’s Hospital), the department developed Eligible midwives and collaborative arrangements: an implementation framework for Victorian public health services to guide Victorian health services participating in collaborative arrangements with eligible midwives.

For more information, see Credentialling of eligible midwives.

Developing and implementing an APNE model of care and service

Part of the solution to respond to the growing demand for endoscopy services will be interdisciplinary teams of health professionals (medical, nursing and allied health staff) working collaboratively to utilise their skills to full capacity to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centred care.

While developing its own program and a template for other Victorian health services, Austin Health developed several guidance documents including an Organisational readiness checklist and an APNE Trainee Position Description.

The department has adapted these documents for organisations interested in emulating the training and implementation pathways adopted by Austin Health and its partnering organisations:

Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education Grant

The Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education Grant is provided to public health services as a contribution to the cost incurred for developing and providing education programs for nurses and midwives.

The grant focuses on the development of knowledge and skill in targeted areas as identified by individual health services.

Eligible public health services/rural consortia will receive notification regarding their continuing nursing and midwifery education funding allocation by November.

Each year, recipients of the grant must report back to the department about their education activities for the period 1 July to 30 June, by the end of July.

Training and Development Funding

Training and Development Funding supplements the costs associated with the teaching, training and research activities undertaken by public health services. Specifically, the nursing and midwifery component of the funding supports the delivery of early graduate programs and the clinical component of postgraduate nursing and midwifery education.

Training and Development Funding (nursing and midwifery) has been streamlined and now comprises of two streams:

• graduate nurse and midwifery programs that support and nurture nursing and midwifery graduates in the first year of employment and practice
• postgraduate nursing and midwifery education that supports the clinical component of postgraduate education programs (where a supervised or supported clinical training component is required for program completion, including midwifery).

For further information please, see Training and developing funding.

Enrolled Nurse Transition to Practice Program

The Department of Health is funding the Enrolled Nurse Transition to Practice Program (ENTPP) in 2023-24 for Victorian public health services in rural and regional areas. This is to help enrolled nurses with learning and development in their first year of professional practice.

Overview

In 2023-24, 85 places will be targeted to rural and regional areas. Each rural health region has been allocated 17 places.

The funding is available for Victorian public health services to design, implement and evaluate transition to practice programs for enrolled nurses (ENs) to grow their local workforce.

The rural health consortia fund holder in each region will be responsible for coordinating the application and selection process of the 17 places for their region.

Table 1: Details of the rural health consortia

Fund holders are responsible for managing the funding allocation process fairly and transparently, notifying the department of the outcome.

Eligibility criteria

All Victorian public rural and regional health services are eligible to apply for the ENTPP funding.

How to apply

Application process for this funding will be coordinated by the 5 rural health consortia fund holders. Applications have now closed. The department will notify health services of the outcome of their application early 2024.