Healthy boost for nursing students

THE TOWNSVILLE Hospital is supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students passionate about nursing and midwifery to complete their studies with a new Indigenous Academic Merit Scholarship.

The scholarship, available to James Cook University nursing and midwifery students, forms a combined approach between the health service and university to increase completion rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery students.

Townsville Hospital and Health Service assistant director of nursing and midwifery Meaghan Trovato said the scholarship offered successful full-time students $3000 a semester to help with costs related to their studies.

“We know that finances can be one barrier to completing a degree, so the scholarship aims to alleviate a little bit of financial pressure,” she said.

“Further to this, students receive important one-onone mentoring from an experienced indigenous clinical nurse consultant both during and after their clinical placements.”

Fourth-year nursing and midwifery student and scholarship recipient Georgia Dennis-smith, 20, said it had made a significant difference to her.

“I’ve spent a lot of time away from home on placement in places like Charters Towers and even New South Wales, where I did a placement with the NSW Air Ambulance, and this meant I spent a bit of my savings,” she said.

“There are other costs too associated with nursing such as textbooks, stethoscopes and good-quality shoes which are important for nurses who are on their feet in the wards all day.

“I was really excited and thankful to receive the scholarship and relieved to have the financial support,” Ms Dennis-smith said.