bachelor of nursing at uni

There is a TON of study - I won't sugar coat it.
You usually do a 3 week clinical in first year, two 3 week clinicals in 2nd year and in 3rd year I did a 6 week clinical and no, I didn't get any money for all of this. You need to save, save, save or take out huge loans just to pay the rent/mortgage & put food on the table (also catch a lot of public transport to save money).
With clinical placements, I could not choose where I wanted to go and had to get up at 4.30 - 4.45 am at the latest to get to my clinical placement, which usually started at 7.00 am, though some started at 6.00 am. It was winter in the hills, freezing wasn't the word for the cold, & I will never do it again for any job. Plainly, it sucked badly.
You get some hands on in nursing labs but I would say it was minimal.
Go to an open day and have a look - even ring up the nursing schools, and arrange to go there and have soemone talk it through with you.
And no, I disagree nurses make good money in Australia now. I do agency work and the money is great on weekends - but 2/3's of my pay goes in tax when I work on a Saturday. And forget about finding permanent jobs - they are very scarce at the mo (especially in WA)

It does depend on the uni. At the uni I go to you do get to choose where you go to. The Lecturers are wonderful. I studied but not overly and still got distinctions. My daughter who is doing her HSC is doing much harder work than I am doing. There is plenty of good agency work but I don't know about the hospital work.

HI
I'm currently in my second year of bachelor of nursing in Brisbane - and I love it!!!
I'm going to a small campus - around 100 students per intake - and all the staff are wonderful. I really enjoy the lectures and labs and my uni has a great learning atmosphere.
Like anything in life, you will find it different to the next person. You will find some classes that you do really well in with very little study, other's you'll bust your gut to get a pass. I thikn it must depend on the uni for placement. For me year 1 we only have 1week, year 2 2weeks + 4weeks, 3rd year 4weeks + 8weeks - for us we get input as to where we go from our second placement in year 2.

I wont kid you - its tough work - but I think and hope its worth it.

Good luck,

Our clinical placements are different again:
Year 1 - 2 weeks
Year 2 - 8 weeks ( 4 each semester )
Year 3 - 14 weeks ( 6 weeks 1st semester, 8 weeks 2nd )

I am currently in my last semester and doing my transition placement. Yes, it IS hard work, but well worth it