I've been reading through some of your posts and thought I would pop in and answer some of the questions re ACU.
Part-time is obviously being offered as they have stipulated this on their website. However, as a full-time student you can organise you timetable to only have to be there 3 days a week max. But you just have to get in early to get the good times.
Lectures ARE NOT compulsary. Tutorials and Labs are. Labs require a 100% attendance however if you miss a lab you can usually make it up in another time. Tutorials are 80% attendance.
There is no prac until 2nd Semester which goes for up to 6 weeks. And follow-throughs don't commence until this time also. On prac you may rotate between antenatal clinic/ward, postnatal ward, Midwifery Group Practice, Community and Gynae. However you may not rotate and all and be like some of us and be on the same postnatal ward the whole time.
I won't lie to you. Prac is FULL ON! Its only Monday to Friday however you may be allocated a day or night shift.
The Maters shifts are - Day: 6.30am - 3.15pm. Night: 2.30pm - 10.45pm. Late: 10.30pm - 7.15am.
My rotation was Days. Nights. Days and then i was lucky enough to finish the 2 weeks on days! And none of us ever had to do a late shift.
I will give you a bit of heads up in relation to the support from Uni staff etc - Don't expect too much help and support. A lot of us felt like we were thrown in the deep end and left to swim. I am quite bitter about that coming out of the first year.
My recommendation - Mingle with your fellow students. Best thing EVER! Because most of the women in the course were Mums and all in the same situation (and because by the time the census date comes around there are only about 50 students left) we all supported each other really well.
I'm not entirely sure how much the course structure will change next year but this is how it goes this year:
1st Semester:
BIOL117 - Applied Science for Practice 1 (All your Biology and Anatomy stuff - Fairly hard)
NRSG120 - Indigenous Culture and Health (An eye opening subject - Pretty Easy if you listen)
NRSG121 - Context of Nursing 1 (The Nursing subject where you learn basic nursing skills ie Bed making, taking blood pressure etc etc - Fairly hard)
NRSG127 - Beginning the Journey (Midwifery Subject) (Bascially learn about Legislations etc etc - Fairly Easy)
2nd Semester:
BIOL118 - Applied Science for Practice 2 - Continuing on from 1st Semester
NRSG122 - Exploring Professional Practice (Law and Ethics) - I found this boring as $hit and didnt attend 1 lecture. If your not going to attend lectures, really study out of the text book. Tutorials are compulsary and will be VERY beneficial if your not going to attend lectures.
NRSG113 - The Childbearing Journey - This is where the stuff WE LOVE to learn about starts. I loved it. We have a Lecture, Tute and Lab for this subject. Tutes are about a Case Study which progresses week to week. An Oral presentation is required as an assessment. In Labs we learn how to do Abdominal Palpations and Drug Calcs. You will be assessed on these alone and it is a pass or fail. No in between. You must pass these to be able to go on prac. You also learn about labour and birth. Infant feeding ie breast and formula. Etc etc.
NRSG115 - Practice Connections - Clinical Placement which begins mid September. On prac you are only allowed to do what you have learnt at Uni. You will be given a list of the duties you can do which include: Bed Making, Baby Bath Demo (Assessment on Prac), Formula Feeding Demo (Assessment on Prac), TPR (Temp, Pulse and Resp), Blood Pressure, Wound Care, NNST - Neonatal Screening Test (or heel pr ick test) (Assessment on Prac), Oral Meds under direct supervison of RN/RM. DONT DO ANYTHING THAT IS NOT ON THE LIST!!! A couple of us did and we got into trouble as it is out of your scope of practice.
Well I think thats pretty much all I can tell you off the top of my head. Sorry there is so much info!!!
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