nursing students ---- unfair treatment

我们需要更多的nursing students 加入支持我们的行列， 不光是Deakin university, 如果你是来处其它的university , please contact us ,
nurseunited@gmail.com


The statement of unfair treatment


As a body of international nurses who have recently completed the work for a one year Bachelor of Nursing conversion course, and who have been severely penalised by recent change of rules for our registration as nurses in Australia, we want you to review our situation.

We are all experienced nurses in our own countries. We came to Deakin University in Burwood in July 2009 to study this conversion course. We were led to believe that, provided we passed the course work and clinical placements, we would be eligible for registration. We had to pass IELTS tests at the 6.5 level to enter the course.

During this year members of our group made enquiries with the Nursing Board of Victoria concerning what was required for our registration. We received the reply as attached.

It was not until towards the end of our course that we became aware of both a change of registering authority and a change of rules. When we asked our lecturers whether we should apply for registration through the Victorian Board, we were advised that this was not the best way to approach registration.

Some of our class did apply in May and case workers were appointed and it was stated that no further English requirements existed (see e-mail attached) It would seem that these people will be registered under the old rules while the rest of us fall under the new rules. That is, we are being penalised retrospectively. We started our course (and almost finished it) with the understanding that we were subject to the Victorian Board.

It seems that in the promulgation of the new registration rules the Nursing and Midwifery Board did not take account of those few students who would finish courses at the mid-year and would have no time to prepare for the new English requirement. We believe there should be a transition arrangement from old to new – not a sudden change which penalises mid-year graduates.

We are now in a very difficult situation. Many of us have visas that run out in August. Many of us have come to the end of our finances which we saved in order to do this very expensive conversion course. Our visas do not allow us to work more than 20 hours a week which makes financing an intensive English course and paying for a very expensive IELTS test even more difficult. Some of us had been interviewed for GNP positions in hospitals pending our registration and were short-listed or selected. Obviously we cannot now take these jobs. Our lives have been thrown into turmoil.

It should be noted that to graduate we needed to pass course work, exams, and clinical placements. If we have passed all of these then lecturers and professionals in the field have judged us to be safe and competent nurses with the English ability to perform professionally.



We ask the Board to consider our cases and to allow us to proceed under the rules which pertained until after our final exams. We ask the Board to recognised the unfairness of the new situation for people finishing at mid-year, and the difficulty this causes for us.

We also ask all people to pay attention on this issue, because this issue affect more than hundreds of international students.

"We were led to believe that, provided we passed the course work and clinical placements, we would be eligible for registration. " - You belief is only true when the national registration regulation does not change.

又对nursing 动手啦。