nomi

Hello Well its finally time to start applying for all the courses again to try and get into UNI to study to become an RN. I am in South Australia and I am applying for the 2 unis here plus also Charles Darwin Uni which has external study options available. As these courses are extremely competitive and I am applying on the basis of a stat score I am looking for other options if I am unsuccessful. Does anyone know of any other RN courses that can be done externally or bridging courses or perhaps even paying fees per subject at any of the unis that I could later gain credit for ? The main priority is it has to be able to be done external. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi Lorraine I would gladly to distance education - it was actually more competitive than the internal course here in SA. If I could find any couse enrolled or uni course externally that i could get into i would be very happy :) I heard of a lot of EN's who tried to get into the RN course and also failed - i think the problem is the govt needs to open up more places. Its frustrating when you keep hearing that there is a nursing shortage - yet the problem is more the lack of places available than ppl interested. As far as i know the only external courses for entry level RN are uni sa & charles darwin.

Thanks for the info ! great to hear from someone who is actually doing it. They actually offer an entry level degree for RN externally too so I am going to apply for that as well. Good luck with your studies.

Hello Thanks everyone for your replies re enrolled nursing. Believe me I would love to be an EN and never meant to sound as though it wouldnt be great cause it would. Last year i only enrolled for the external course at Unisa and missed out so this year I am going to enrol for all courses internal as well so i hopefully should get in. I have seen that charles darwin also does external nursing and will definitely be applying if anyone has any info or experience on how easy this is to due from another state please let me know. As for the En course it would appear this is harder to get into than the RN course. It seems that with the amount of applicants etc i really need to have a certificate 3 in a related field ie, aged care / community services etc Has anyone gone down this road? My plan is to try to get into uni if that doesnt work then i am going to apply for probably mid year entry to tafe for the enrolled nursing course. Any and all advice would be appreciated i am so confused and wish i could see into the future ! then i would know which path to take or even if i will be accepted. BTW is the bridgring program for conversion from EN to RN only available in NSW - i didnt think it was available in SA Thanks and sorry for the long post

hi thanks for the info :)

hi thanks for the replies. I am motivated to become an RN the problem was I didnt get into the course so now I find i have to do an alternative pathway which is frustrating but I guess it will get me there in the end. In SA last year there were over 1400 applicants and only 200 places available for bachelor of nursing! makes it very hard to get into the course As for the ANF website I cant access any of the wage information there unless I am a member or I wish to pay $220 for a wage newsletter they have. So if anyone has another resource I could try for the pay rates - I am just looking for a reasonable estimate.

Hi Well as I didnt get into Uni last year to study to become an RN. I have decided to probably take the path of becoming an enrolled nurse through a private organisation. I hope that maybe once I have this I will continue on to further study to become an RN depending on how much I like it etc. I am trying to find current rates of pay for Enrolled Nurses in SA can anyone help me out. I have found some information but its all a few years dated. Thanks

Hi Thanks for the reply. I cant believe you can do that apply for the internal course and then go externally ! its like 5 - 6 points difference in the TER score. Oh well I know I will definitely get in next year. I just put in some preferences in the second round to see how I would go and I am positive I would have got in to the internal course no worries. If I had started this year I could have only gone external and I would have been working full time and just taken the time off when I had too. I am really excited cause next year I will be quitting my job to be a full time student and I cant wait. I would have worked for 10 years full time by then iin the same job can you believe it. Do you find the workload to be the same as say working a full time job. I have to say although im disappointed I think it would have to be easier being an internal student. Why do so many people drop out straight away is it the realisation of what nursing is all about or just the amount of work ? Nomi

Hi thanks for your posts - i am not too upset I mean I would have loved to have started this year externally but I wouldnt have been going if I had got into the internal course. I only put in one preference which definitely let me down. I put in more preferences after the first round but then of course you are not granted the same consideration as everyone else who put the preferences in first. I actually did get into my 5th preference and it is roughly same points as internal nursing so I am sure I would have got in to internal nursing if i had it put it in in time for first round. This year I am saving really really hard so I can afford to quit my full time job next year and study full time. I am just annoyed more than anything that my degree has been pushed back a year. Good luck to you both with your studies

Hi I am in South Australia it is different here. I cant enrol into anything until next year to get in to TAFE to do a certificate etc you have to apply the same as Uni and its all closed off for this year.

Hi I am not sure what you mean by this. I know the rank went up but how is that meant to help me. The internal course went up by 6 points and the external was 10 points up on last years internal course. As a mature age entry student this doesnt affect me as I am scored on a different system. I had to sit a test I did better than 72% of all other people. That is how they tell you your score as a percent of how well you did against everyone else. The problem is so many ppl wanted to do nursing this year. As mature age you are also competing against ppl who have employment experience in nursing ie, enrolled nurses, etc etc

Hi If any of you remember I was looking to gain a place to Uni to start the path of becoming a RN. Unfortunately I didnt get an offer in the 2nd round either. I have just emailed the uni to see if there is any hope at all otherwise it looks like i have to wait until next year. I am very disappointed especially since i got a high mark in the mature age entry exam (i am 27). Nursing was a really really popular course this year. Good luck to everyone that did get in. Nomi

Hi Emmy No I dont know how my results ranked with the TER cut off scores. Its calculated differently. I applied to do the external course which you needed 76 - 77 points to get into. The internal course needed about 72 I think. Which jumped up by about 6 points from previous year. The mature entry course I did was called STAT you dont get a score like say 80 out of 100 but a percentage. I did better than 72% of all other applicants doing the test, that is the scoring they tell you. I actually did better than 82% of all people in the verbal/language side and better than 56% of all people in the science/math side. So you can where my strengths are lol I am pretty sure that if I had applied internally I would have been accepted. Oh well, good luck with your course and maybe I will be joining you next year. Naomi

Hi Emmy UNISA is the course I applied for !! I was silly though an only put in the one preference. Nursing externally. Im still hoping to get into the next round in February if not I will go next year. Unfortunately all the TAFE courses needed the same admission procedures otherwise I would have done the certificate course and then gone on from that.

Hi Thanks for the responses I appreciate it. I am feeling much better about things today. I am still hopeful that I will get in this year however I have decided for practical reasons to defer to next year even if I do get in. By doing this I can save lots of money and be much better prepared as I have decided I would rather go interal. If I do get accepted externally i will just do a couple of subjects and transfer interally next year. Either way I will get their in the end and thats all that matters.