Nursing students gain experience in a range of healthcare settings. This means they get to see what life is like in each one and expand their skills and expertise as they move through their placements. The learning process involved is a bit like building a house in that each placement is a layer of bricks that adds up to create a solid structure. Students do an aged care sector placement first. This exposes them to the diseases and types of problems that affect patients at this stage of life. It also introduces them to how to work within a team healthcare professionals and allows them to consolidate basic skills, and learn new ones. Building on this experience, they then move into a sub-acute setting where the focus is the application of medicine and wound management. This placement is where they really get to apply theory to real-world situations. Also they might move on to work in a mental health facility. Here, they’ll be exposed to patients who have a range of mental health conditions and will build on their knowledge of treatment and medication. Finally, they’ll go into an acute care setting. It’s here students learn how to manage acute and complex patients, do their IV competences, and be put to the test of everything they’ve learnt so far. It’s a very comprehensive placement program and by the end of it students can expect to have significantly increased their skills and knowledge. Students always get so inspired and excited about the diversity and choice of healthcare careers open to them. Successful nurses must be able to master the theory and practice of the profession. As well as needing to know hundreds of acronyms, medications and organs, they also need to have the critical thinking, communication, and team work skills to be able to deal with life and death situations. This type of expertise can only be learnt on the job, and it’s why our nursing courses focus on high quality placements — as well as top notch classroom teaching — to prepare our students for life on the ward.