The Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife (RN/RM) Graduate Program provides 12-month nursing and midwifery temporary contracts, both full and part time, across multiple facilities including:

Program aims

The program aims to:

  • support you as you transition into the role
  • provide you with opportunities to consolidate your clinical skills and develop clinical competence and confidence
  • provide you with opportunities to work within an interprofessional team
  • support you to develop your clinical decision making and critical thinking skills.

Program overview

Graduates receive education and support in the clinical environment, through a range of strategies, from a team of professionals.

Education opportunities

  • orientation day
  • access to Transition Support Programs (in some specialty areas)
  • professional development opportunities
  • in-service education sessions
  • quality improvement activity
  • reflective practice groups and reflective journalling
  • progress review meetings
  • specialty education outlined in Requisite Education Frameworks (REFs)

Clinical support

Clinical Coaches provide hands on clinical support and education, in a friendly and supportive manner. There are regular opportunities for feedback and discussion regarding your clinical practice throughout your graduate year. Other clinical support during your graduate program is provided via:

  • unit induction
  • supernumerary days
  • supported practice
  • preceptors
  • nurse educators
  • clinical nurse consultants
  • graduate program co-ordinator.

Collegial support

During your graduate program, you will benefit from strong collegial support, fostering a collaborative environment where teamwork and shared knowledge enhance your professional growth. Collegial support opportunities include:

  • reflective practice groups
  • graduate focus groups.

Clinical areas

The following clinical specialties are currently offered in the graduate program. You may select 2 clinical areas as preferences when submitting your application, which will be considered if your graduate program application is successful.

Caloundra Health Service

  • Dove Palliative Care Unit

Glenbrook Residential Aged Care

Gympie Hospital

  • Acute Services Unit (ASU)
  • Emergency Department
  • Extended Services Unit (ESU)
  • Perioperative

Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital

  • Emergency Department
  • Maleny Ward

Nambour General Hospital

  • Acute and Restorative Care (ARC) Unit (Ward 2FW)
  • Emergency Department
  • Medical (Ward 3FW / Ward 4FW)
  • Medical Assessment and Planning Unit (MAPU)
  • Mental Health
  • Perioperative
  • Surgical (Ward 1E)

Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH)

  • Acute Rehabilitation Unit
  • Cardiac / Endocrine Unit (Ward 3D)
  • Child and Adolescent Unit (CAU)
  • Emergency Department
  • General Medicine (Ward 5B/5C)
  • Intensive Care Unit
  • Mental Health
  • Oncology / Haematology Unit (Ward 5D)
  • Orthopaedics (Ward 5A)
  • Perioperative
  • Renal / Gastroenterology / Hepatology Unit (Ward 3C)
  • Respiratory / Infectious Diseases Unit (Ward 3A)
  • Stroke / Neurology / Acute Geriatrics Unit (Ward 4A)
  • Surgical (Ward 4B & Ward 4C)
  • Urology / Gynaecology (Ward 4D)

Midwifery

Midwifery is not considered a clinical area for preference selection, as it is a separate profession to nursing. If you have dual qualifications, you will need to make a choice between midwifery or nursing. Applicants selecting midwifery will be asked to select, in order of preference, the midwifery model of care you would prefer to work in.

Queensland Health midwifery model of care options include:

  • Midwifery Group Practice (MGP) or Continuity of Midwifery Care Model
  • rotational shifts across all areas of midwifery practice.

Midwifery graduate positions are offered at Sunshine Coast University Hospital and Gympie Hospital.

Work hours

First-year graduates are expected to work flexible hours based on the requirements of their allocated clinical area. The program includes a variety of shift work. Day shifts, afternoon shifts, night shifts and weekend work. Graduates can also take on extra clinical hours as available within their clinical areas.

Eligibility and how to apply

To apply for a graduate position with us, you must apply through our graduate portal. The recruitment process can take up to 3 months. We recommend you prepare all the documents you’ll need in advance, so you’re ready to submit them through the portal when it opens. Incomplete submissions may cause delays in the processing of your application.

The Graduate Portal is open from Monday 30 June 2025 to Sunday 3 August 2025.

To be eligible for the graduate program, you must meet the following requirements:

  • hold Australian citizenship, Australian permanent residency, New Zealand citizenship (with a subclass 444 Special Category Visa or right to be granted), or a visa with non-employer sponsored work right
  • be eligible for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), including all necessary documentation and identity checks
  • have graduated within the past 2 years (domestically or internationally) from your first undergraduate nursing degree, midwifery degree, or graduate-entry Master of Nursing or Master of Midwifery. That is, between July 2023 to June 2025, or be due to complete your qualification by December 2025.
  • at the time of application submission, you have not worked as a registered nurse (if applying for a nursing position) or a registered midwife (if applying for a midwifery position), for more than 960 hours* (equivalent to 6 months full time), since completion of the relevant qualification.

* If working as a registered nurse in a non-government residential aged care facility, general practice, disability service or other community health organisation, you can work up to 1,976 hours (equivalent to 1 year full time).

If you applied in the previous recruitment campaign and meet the above criteria, you're still eligible and will need to reapply for consideration. Your previous application is only valid for one application period.

You can find out more about how to apply on the Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate program website.

We welcome applications from graduates of all universities within Queensland, even if you haven't done a placement with us.

When you apply, make sure you select Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Services clinical preferences to be eligible for our program.

If English is your second language, you'll need to give us evidence that you've successfully completed the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

This program is also open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates.

We preferably employ graduate RN/RMs:

  • who meet merit through the graduate program recruitment process
  • who are available to commence on the graduate program start dates
  • who won't be working in a concurrent appointment to a different clinical area while completing the graduate program
  • who aren't on the casual pool.

We don't accept late applications or alterations to submitted applications.

If your application is successful, you'll need to attend a face to face interview. You'll need to to bring proof of identity to the interview. We don't require your referee reports at this stage. You must provide 2 referees on your CV who we'll contact directly for referee reports.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Identified positions

We value the guidance and involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples working in our services to help us provide culturally and clinically safe care.

Our graduate program has several Aboriginal and Torres Islander identified nursing and midwifery graduate positions, supported with cultural mentorship. We encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to apply for identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduate nursing and midwifery positions.

To be eligible to apply for an identified graduate position, the graduate must identify during the graduate application process, using the Statutory Declaration on the Graduate Portal. Proof of Aboriginality (as outlined in Commission Chief Executive Guideline 02/13: Evidence of Attribute – Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Identified Roles) is required if you're appointed to an identified position.

Commencement

To start the program you must provide proof that you've completed a Bachelor of Nursing or Midwifery degree.

If you don't have your qualification certificate before your start date, you'll need to give us a copy of your unofficial academic transcript. A Justice of the Peace (JP) will need to certify this. Once you get your qualification certificate, you'll need to send a JP certified copy to us.

You must also register with the Australia Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). We can't complete your recruitment process until you get your registration. You must do this 6 weeks before you complete your undergraduate course.

Graduate program intake dates are:

  • October 2025
  • February 2026

You must be registered with AHPRA and available to start working on the relevant program intake date, or you will not be able to join the graduate program.

You must also:

  • provide evidence of Vaccination for Preventable Diseases (VPD)
  • provide completed HR recruitment forms and required information.

When sending your certified documents to us, please don't send photographs of them, we won't accept these.

Options after the program

When you finish the program you'll have the opportunity to apply for work in a variety of clinical areas. You may also want to apply for one of our second year graduate programs.

We currently offer second year graduate programs within the following units:

  • Cancer Care Services (Day unit)
  • Renal Services
  • Gastroenterology Procedural Suites
  • Interventional Suites.

Last updated: May 2025

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