Wyndham council has announced a new scholarship program is now available for eligible to registered nurses and midwives to help further their studies and enable them to become a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nurse.
The scholarship is hoped to address nurse shortages and will provide a payment up to $25,000 to cover the fees for registered nurses and midwives who complete the accredited Graduate Diploma of MCH nursing studies at Federation University, RMIT University or La Trobe University.
Wyndham council’s healthy city portfolio holder councillor Adele Hegedich said the scholarship was a wonderful opportunity for any registered nurses and midwives who were thinking about transitioning into the maternal and child health field.
“Across Wyndham we have seen a dramatic fall in available MCH nurses to employ after the pandemic,” she said.
“In turn this has had a huge impact on new parents with cancellations of MCH appointments for their children.”
“Providing a scholarship program like this will not only help a registered nurse or midwife further their studies without the extra fees but upon completion, successful scholarship recipients will receive an offer of employment to join council to complete a twelve-month graduate placement here at Wyndham City.”
Cr Hegedich said recipients who completed their studies would then receive priority access to available nursing vacancies in the municipality.
“We want to ensure that the MCH program here at Wyndham can provide all new parents access to the wonderful service it provides and recruiting staff to fill those vacant positions is one of the many steps we are working towards fixing,” she said.
The Scholarship is also available to applicants who have already commenced their study.
