CURRENTLY, GV Health needs to recruit 88 full-time equivalent (FTE) nursing and midwifery roles, or approximately 135 staff. By 2025 this gap will widen to 241 FTE nursing and midwifery roles, or 360 staff.
GV Health proposes a purpose-built Clinical Health School at the main Graham Street campus in Shepparton. The $26.2M Clinical Health School would improve recruitment and retention of key staff in nursing, midwifery and allied health roles, addressing these urgent staffing shortages.
Under a proposed expansion of the partnership between GV Health and La Trobve University, a new purpose-built clinical health school would increase the number of nursing and midwifery undergraduate students by 30, an increase of 43 percent, resulting in 100 nursing students graduating in the area each year.
Post-graduate nursing students will increase by 23, an uplift of 105 percent, to 45 graduating each year. Further, 13-15 additional allied health undergraduate positions will be created annually if the proposal goes ahead, an increase of 30 percent.
Speaking to the media last Wednesday, Nationals Candidate for Nicholls, Sam Birrell, said the Regional Accelerator Fund, explained in better detail on page 6, is one way to get the proposal off the ground, referencing the end-to-end Murray Darling Medical School now in operation.
“I want to do the same thing with allied health and I’m really fighting hard to build that clinical health school for Allied Health, nursing, midwifery, and other associated professions,” said Mr Birrell.
