Social & Health Sciences

Nursing

Nurses are in demand. Here in New Zealand and overseas. And Unitec nursing graduates work right around the world. In child health, aged care, acute hospital care, rehabilitation, mental health and primary healthcare. There are many in nursing research too. Some even train the next generation of nurses. But wherever they work, they all share a passion to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

We’re the main nursing educator in West Auckland. Actually, our programmes are the only ones in Waitakere that lead to registration with the Nursing Council of New Zealand. In other words, we’re pretty much it if you want to become a Registered Nurse, an Enrolled Nurse or are looking for professional development for nurses.

A healthy dose of work experience

Lectures are just the beginning. Don’t just sit back and listen. Be active: ask questions, solve problems, and treat real patients in your clinical practice settings. And there’ll be a few clinical placements – it’s a key part of our nursing programmes. Which means frequent visits at North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals, the Mason Clinic, Rehab Plus, private surgical hospitals and primary healthcare organisations.

Bachelor of Nursing students also spend many hours at the Education and Practice Simulation Centre at Waitakere Hospital, thanks to our links with the Waitemata District Health Board. It’s a high-tech, simulated hospital environment. Pretty close to the real world of nursing practice. But most importantly, a safe place to practise nursing skills.

It has everything you’d find in a hospital: an acute assessment room, an operating theatre, a critical care unit, a simulation ward, a community bed-sit and interview rooms. And because this is nursing training, there’s also an audio-visual control room to tape and analyse what you’re doing.

There’ll be plenty of technology too. Use the internet and computerised library databases, or access online nursing resources like Mosby’s Nursing Consult and Mosby’s Nursing Skills. We’re also working with medical publishing giant Elsevier to make Mosby’s more relevant to the Pacific Rim. With New Zealand accents and Kiwi terms. And perhaps even featuring Department of Nursing staff.

Nursing programmes

To prepare for nursing study:

To qualify as a Registered Nurse:

To qualify as an Enrolled Nurse:

Professional development:

If you want a career in mental health:

Internationally qualified nurses:

  • Nursing in Aotearoa (applications for 2012 have now closed) - an 8 week course to enable overseas registered nurses to meet the requirements for registration as a nurse in New Zealand.

 

Unitec TV campaign - Change Starts Here

Bachelor of Nursing student Netane Takau explains how much he enjoys working with real patients.