Doing work that really matters

If you ask what Georgia loves about nursing, she'll tell you it's all about her patients.

"Nursing for me is having a patient that is so debilitated and being able to help them and make them feel so much better; it's really a very rewarding job to have," she explained.

"I couldn't think of anything else I'd want to do."

Before she got into teaching, Georgia was working in intensive care as a Registered Nurse on the Gold Coast. Now she gets to pass on her experience to the next generation of nursing professionals.

"Taking students through the journey of nursing, we use a lot of real-life stories and real-life scenarios that have happened to us, and I think that really helps to paint a picture of what they can expect to maybe see when they go out into industry," Georgia said.

According to the Australian Government's JobOutlook service, the number of both Enrolled and Registered nurses is expected to grow very strongly over the next five years. As Georgia has seen, it's a profession anyone can enter.

"Getting into a nursing career is definitely an amazing decision and a very, very positive decision. We have students that are school leavers, middle-aged, later career changes, still living with their parents at home, and some that have established houses and families," she said.

"The beauty of it is that TAFE Queensland offers flexible study where they can be online or come here face-to-face. I think to be able to enrol in something like that is pretty family friendly."

For those students who study on campus, and even online students who attend residential blocks of training, the facilities they have access to are not just industry standard, but world class.

"We have clinical labs that are very much like what to expect in the hospital setting and in acute care settings. We've got all the electronics, we've got some mannequins that can act like real patients, so the students can have that experience of looking after a 'real' patient, and we've got fake medications," said Georgia.

"We do also have new, innovative technology where we can use virtual reality to see what it really would look like to have a sick patient with various diseases so the students can get right up and close to looking at that virtual reality without it being a real person."

Combining hands-on experience with theory doesn't stop in the classroom though, all Diploma of Nursing (HLT54115) students are required to complete 400 hours of placement as part of their qualification.

"Our students have quite a big variety of placements that they can go to. They go to anywhere from aged care facilities to mental health, acute care to surgical and medical. It's really lovely when they come back and tell us all about their experiences that they've had," continued Georgia.

In terms of her role and career, both nursing and teaching, Georgia has some final thoughts to offer.

"Greatness to me it is enjoying coming to work, and it's being here at TAFE Queensland and being in the acute settings as well. Nurses are voted one of the most trusted professions every single year and I think to be able to be part of teaching the future career of nurses is pretty rewarding."