Graduate program events

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's webinar.
Before we begin, I recognise that most of the panel and our team are hosting this webinar in Brisbane from the country of the Yuggera and Turbbal people.
I also recognise the traditional owners of the countries where all of you will be joining from today and the First Nations people present in this webinar.
I pay my respects to elders, past and present, and celebrate the diversity of Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures and connections to the land and waters of QLD.
My name is Angelina Zande-Wilkins and I am the director of nursing in the Office of the Chief Nurse Officer. I would like to congratulate you all on completing your degree or near completing your degree, and we warmly welcome you to the professions of nursing and midwifery.
This webinar is being recorded and will be available on the nursing and Midwifery graduate programme website in the coming weeks.
Please ensure your mics are muted.
If you have any questions, please post them in the chat. We are hoping to have time at the end of the session to answer these.
Please be aware though that anyone on the chat can see the information that you post. Please do not put any personal information in there.
This webinar is part of a series designed to help you launch your career as a nurse or a midwife within Queensland health.
Today's webinar is on an introduction to the Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme how to prepare your application and succeed at the interview.
I'd like to now introduce our panel for today.
First, we have Renee.

Renee Langridge  
Thanks, Angie. My name is Renee Langridge, and I am the Graduate Nurse coordinator at QEII hospital in Metro South help down in southeast corner of Queensland. My background is in intensive care nursing, periop nursing and I've also worked overseas. However, for the last 10 years I've been working with novice nurses in graduate and student land. Thanks, Angie. Thanks Renee. Natasha.

Natasha Moon  
Thanks, Angie. My name is Natasha Moon. I'm the nurse manager for workforce planning.
Here at the Queensland Children's Hospital as as part of Children's Health Queensland, I have extensive experience working in both the public and the private sectors in Queensland, as well as working overseas, and I've got a cardiac background.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  3:15
Lovely. Thank you and Michaela.

Natasha Moon  
Thanks, Angie.

Mikala Power  
Afternoon. My name's Mikala Power and I work in project support for the office of the Chief Nurse Officer. And I'll be helping with any sort of questions or enquiries in regards to the graduate programme today. Thank you. Thank you.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Mikala.
So choosing a career as a nurse or a midwife with Queensland health can be challenging both for you and the patients that you, sorry, life changing both for you and the patients that you care for. The Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme supports graduate nurses and midwives to transition from academic study to your clinical practise.
Your work in a supportive and inclusive environment.
You can choose from many settings to work in metropolitan or city and surrounds regional, rural and remote. You can also work in hospitals, patient homes, schools and communities across QLD.
The First Nations nurses and midwives you can have a significant impact in your own community.
From day one, Queensland health will support you every step of the way, helping you succeed in your career.
The nursing career structure offers diverse pathways for growth in clinical education, management, leadership and research roles.
We are dedicated to supporting you throughout your journey, ensuring your success in any pathway you choose.
Upon completing the graduate programme, you can apply to work in various QLD health facilities.
As a midwife, you have the option to start your career in a midwifery.
Continuity of carer model or specialised in specific areas such as maternity, neonatal and family care.
With practise consolidation and further experience, you can pursue expanded practise roles or consultancy positions, including a clinical midwife, consultant, laptation consultant or an endorsed midwife.
Queensland Health has 16 hospital and health services.
Within each HHS, there are a number of facilities. For example, there are six facilities within Metro North, Caboolture, Redcliffe, Prince Charles, Surgical treatment and rehab and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
Graduate positions are available in a wider variety of clinical areas in each hospital and health service.
From Metropolitan City and surrounds to rural and remote.
There are unique benefits associated with each region. For the Metropolitan, Hospital and Health Services, which which are in the southeast corner of Queensland, offer a range of clinical services, including tertiary services, which might appeal to you when applying for a position.
Generally, with the graduate programmes within Metropolitan Hospital and Health Services you will gain experience in one or two clinical services.
Then you have the rural and remote HHS, which you may or may not have a variety of services for you to choose from. However, you will gain invaluable experience and skills due to the variety of patients you will be caring for during the graduate programme.
What's really important is to consider where you would like to work your location preferences and what clinical areas you would like to work in your clinical preferences.
Each hospital service has a website that lists its hospitals and its services.
Many health services have dedicated web pages, also promoting nursing and midwifery careers.
Michaela will now discuss the graduate application process.

Mikala Power  
Thank you, Angie. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about how to choose a hospital and health service or HHS on the screen. Now you can see the list of hospital and health service HHS locations for Group A&B Group, A HHS that are in more rural and regional locations. If you're interested in working in one of these, HHS, you only need to provide one preference. Historically, these hhss have not received a significant number of applications when compared to other available positions.
And often applicants are local and therefore this is the area that they wish to remain in.
Group B contains hhss who receive a significant number of applications in comparison to Group A. These hhss are typically in Metropolitan city centres and surrounding areas. It's important to note the Hhsc preference first will consider your application first and foremost during the application process. The formal prompt you to preference your first HHS HHS.
We will then have the options to select from a drop down which work facilities you prefer to work at. If you preference first preference is a HHS in Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences. You can, however, provide at least three and up to six work facility preferences if you want. If your first preference is a HHS and Group B, you must provide a second preference. If your second preference is in Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences.
If you're first who HHS preferences are in Group B, you must provide third preference. But if you but you can additionally.
List HHS preferences and like I said before, up to six in total. Please note if you select rule and rule and remote path rate or RRP you will choose the option to select central Cluster Southern cluster or both specific details relating to available ruined remote pop up locations cannot be determined till after the application portal has closed.
If you are interested in a rural and remote career, Please ensure that you preference rural and remote HHS during your selection and not RRP or pathway. To read more about our rural and remote pathway health health facilities and working in rural remote areas, there will be a link provided in this chat. Be sure your list your list preferences in order from one to six, one being your most preferred area to work in and six being your least preferred in the event you are not selected to undergo the interview process.
Reference HHS. Your application will then move to the next preference you have selected, including more preferences enhances your chance of being considered for more opportunities, so please keep this in mind once you select AHS, you will then have the option to select which facilities you prefer to work at. By default, all facilities are selected. You will not be able to select ahhs more than twice or twice I should say. Researcher locations beforehand to make informed decisions and choices.
I think upon choosing your clinical preferences, please select the clinical areas or department you wish to work in the most. Not all HHS or hospitals offer all clinical fields. It is important you consider a number of clinical preferences really think about where your passions lie. The clinical area that you're interested in and what specific clinical direction you would like to move towards, whether that be for example surgical community or cardiac. The online application process will ask you to nominate your clinical preferences in order form.
There are no there are a few options to choose from for midwifery.
The midwifery you've got 1 midwifery group practise or continuity of midwifery care model. Rotational shifts across all areas of midwifery practise is also another one and your third one is also work in one specific area of midwifery practise for example post Natal ward.
Upon applying, there will be 6 clinical preferences you are asked to rank from highest to lowest. This is to help identify your clinical areas of interest and to therefore place you appropriately. Remember, this does not mean you will get a place in the clinical area of your first choice. There's also a free text box below the clinical preference where you can indicate your preference and you can type that in examples of what you might include. The included emergency department.
The unit or other acute care settings.
So we're now going to go to a question for the panel that anyone can answer this. What would what would advice would you give to people who, when selecting a clinical preference, does anyone want to take over that answer for me?

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Michaela. I guess when you're looking at your preferences, please actually select as your first preference where you really want to go, because that is what will be sent to the hhss. First, Renee, did you have something else to add?

Renee Langridge  
I.
I was just going to say it can be a difficult decision deciding what you want to do, but remember that your career as a marathon is not a Sprint and where you start is not necessarily where you will end up. You may choose to select something that will give you.
A wide breadth of opportunity and experience before specialising perhaps in AED or an operating theatre, so there are many options.
But just think about that that carefully.

Mikala Power  
Great. Thank you very much for that, Renee. I will go now go back to preparing your application. So all applicants must complete an online CV. There is no need to upload any individually formatted CV. This is to make sure we have an information captured in the standard format to complete this section, you'll need to include information about your education, clinical placements, including the time frames of those placements and employment history. The full list of those documents is available on the graduate programme website.
The only documents you will be asked to upload in PDF format are one cover letter and that will should be addressed to your first preference. HHS. It doesn't need to actually address, it can just say to whom it may concern, but we want you to actually target and pitch that cover letter to the first preference of your choice. The second is your academic transcript, whether that be official or unofficial. If you haven't graduated yet. And third and foremost is to completed referee reports.
Sorry in regards to the cover letter. The application process relies on work location preferences and in some cases an applicant's second, third and even later preferences are used. Therefore the cover letter can be addressed generically, for example, to whom it may concern your cover letter is essential to your application process. It should be one A4full page in length. It should be pitched towards the HHS of your first preference and outline the outline motivations for you applying for the role.
Your passion for the profession and what you will bring to the team.
If you have specific reasons for selecting a hospital in HHS or hospital health service, I should say or facility, please tell us why you want to work in that location.
You are only required to write one clever cover letter. Like I said before.
Referee reports so reference reports templates should be filled out by clinical supervisors, meaning someone who has direct knowledge of your clinical practise and can speak about your clinical practise from experience. Example of these would be a clinical facilitator.
A nurse, unit manager or Nam or nurse educator? In some cases, a nursing or midwifery student will be at will be allocated a body who supports a student and reports back to the clinical facilitator or educator. Therefore, a registered nurse or midwife who has supervised a student during placement would be appropriate. Reference clinical supervisors with recent knowledge of your clinical practise are preferred in the event that you are in the midst of your clinical placement and might be able to be able to give a completed.
Referee report.
The portal closes. Oops, sorry placement and won't be completed placement until after the portal closes. Then please specify in your cover letter that you will be able to provide additional referees before the commencement of your recruitment process. If you can only provide one clinical referee report, then a second non clinical referee report will suffice. However, it will need to be a line manager at your current employment.
The 2025 registered Nursing and Midwifery graduate Programme Application Portal is now open. Please make sure you apply through the Nursing and Midwifery graduate portal and not the general graduate portal that that is also online. Please select the portal and select apply. Now you can save your application and continue at a later stage. However, applications cannot be modified on our portal once they have been submitted. You will need to withdraw your application and reapply again. Please note the application portal closes at 11:59 on Sunday August 4th.
This is a computer shutdown, so we will not be accepting any late submissions after this time. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail, please contact our e-mail which is nursing, midwifery, dash graduate enquiries at health.queens.gov dot au. If you are shortlisted, you'll be contacted by your HHS to discuss the next steps regarding the recruitment process and to arrange an interview for most HHS interviews that start anywhere from September onwards.
And show you checking your e-mail and phone to see if you've been contacted by recruitment officers or or invited to interviews. Interviews are conducted at the discretion of HHS and may occur face to face via telephone or via teams.
I'm now going to invite Renee from Metro's Metro South HHS to speak about preparing for your interview. Thank you, Renee.

Renee Langridge  
Thanks very much, Michaela, and thank you for having me here. Like I said earlier, I'm from Metro South. So I'm just going to give a little plug for us as well. We are one of the major providers of nursing and midwife midwifery services across Queensland. We service about 1.2 million people, which is 23% of Queensland's population and we employ over 14,000 people. We are currently undergoing a lot of expansion across our five facilities. We have tertiary facilities, medium size and rural facilities as well.
So with that expansion, it means that we are keen to have a lot of new employees and we want you so head on over to the Metro South graduate programmes website, just Google that and you'll find us or you can see at the bottom of the screen there we have our e-mail address if you have any questions, any inquiries. But we would love you to consider us to do your graduate nurse or midwifery year there. But what I am mainly here to talk about is how to prepare for your interview. I've got a few dot points there. I'm going to cover and not a lot of time. So I'll just get straight into it.
So how do you prepare for your interview? Well, the first thing I've got there is to know the HHS. This is very important because a lot of our, hhs's they're all very different across Queensland. But what is important to them and what is the role that you are going to be doing? So find out what is the hospital or the health services, what is their strategic plan, what are their values, do they align with you? Because if you have that information you'll be able to bring that with you to the interview.
Be able to share how your values align with the hospital values.
Are you applying for a facility that has an additional accreditation, such as Pathway to excellence or magnet? These are external accreditation processes and hospitals that have them are typically very proud of them. So again, having that knowledge demonstrates that you are keen and interested about that HHS and about what is happening in that place and you want to be a part of it. So first tip is know the HHS and study the role by studying the role you'll be able to think a little bit about what is required of you as a new graduate nurse or mid or midwife.
Might be able to bring to the role. It's really important that you don't just sort of hope for the best or just think you can wing it. At an interview. We want to be prepared, so we want to think about the role and what we might be asked in that interview. What might some of the questions we be asked? I can't tell you today what those questions will be for a lot of reasons. Basically, there are a lot of positions and different HHS. We all have different values, different goals, different directions that we are heading in.
But there are some fundamental things that we all look for, so we appreciate that as a new nurse or a new midwife, you've got new knowledge and new skills that you're keen to put into practise. Barrett, that. But it is at that base grade level. So we're not looking for extensive clinical skills or clinical knowledge that you would see at that higher level. What we want to know is that when you come into our facility, whether it's a tertiary facility where it's a rural and remote, whether you're surrounded by a big team or you're working independently on autonomously.
That you are going to be safe. So how in your interview can you come across and tell us that you are going to be safe? So again, study the role, think about some of the questions that you might be asked. This is really important. You can see there. I've got anticipate questions, situation, task, action and results. Whenever we go into an interview. It's really good if we have already practised out loud what we're going to say, but it's also really important to understand that when you head into an interview.
Going to be nervous and that's purely human. We all feel that. So we're going to have that flash of adrenaline. Our palms might be sweating, we might be shaking a little bit. And when that happens, when we are nervous, we tend to just rattle off a few things and then we just sort of stop to provide an interviewer with a nice, well-rounded response to the questions you're being asked using a framework such as star there. So situation, task, action results.
That can help us give that nice well-rounded response.
And give us a better opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills or what we will bring to the team throughout that interview process. It's also nice to provide an example as well. So having that that acronym then start it can then prompt us to also bring in an example and demonstrate how we might meet what are the the question that's being asked or how we have transferable skills from the job that we've recently done. For example, if you work to have worked in retail.
Have a lot of skills and communication, customer service de escalating angry people, all those skills, they are really important in nursing and midwifery. So anticipate the questions if you're sort of stuck and not quite sure, talk to your friends. Talk to your colleagues, talk to the clinical nurses and midwives when you're on clinical placement, talk to your clinic facilitators. People at university and they'll be able to shed a little bit of light.
Their experiences and what you might anticipate.
There are often different types of interviews you might be asked to set a simulation, a scenario, behaviour based questions, talk about teamwork, safety, communication, customer focus, continuous learning resilience. How are you going to manage the stresses of that new graduate year and keep coming back after you've had those, you know, green mistakes or?
Those difficult shifts, how are you going to keep coming back? So anticipate some questions and practise, practise, practise, practise saying those things out loud. You don't want the first time you're saying things or sharing your experiences or talking about it to be when you are sitting in the interview across from the people 'cause like I said, you'll be nervous and you'll just rattle things off. So practise, practise. Practise as much as you can.
Write some notes. You may be given.
Rusal time so you'll be able to jot down how you might respond to the question is this very important to know that you may not be given perusal time? And if you are, you are not assessed on anything that you write down. It's only what you say and the things that you do in your interview. How do you know if you're going to get perusal time? How do you know what type of interview the best way is when you're offered the interview? Just ask.
They may not be able to tell you, but if they can, that is something that you'll be aware of and that you can then prepare for.
So write some notes and if the interviewer is telling you anything about the role, take notes during the interview. It demonstrates that you're enthusiastic and that you're keen as well.
I've got there prepare some queries. This is really good because after the formal part of the interview's over, there's often a little bit of time for dialogue just to where you can sort of relax and it's just to have a conversation. So to have a question.
For maybe it's tell me a little bit about the team I'll be working with.
A way to generate dialogue and you're able to just relax, be a bit more genuine and bring your authentic self. So have a question prepared. I'm just worried about the time, so I'll just quickly get to my last few points there, which is first impressions now we're taught in interviews to overcome the bias of a first impression, but we're also human, so let's put our best self forward and think about our first impression. And there's three things to remember. 1st, 10 seconds, 1st 10 steps.
And 1st 10 words. So your first 10 seconds. How are you looking? When the interviewer sees you, are you well presented? Are you well dressed? I see in the chat there's a question about Scrubs that might depend on the different facility or or hospital and health service you're applying for. But generally as a rule, if you're wearing your student nursing or midwifery uniform and it is well presented. So I mean it is ironed and it's complete in that you're bare below the elbows, your hair up, you're wearing the right shoes.
A nurse through a midwife that is generally considered appropriate. Otherwise, let's just bring in some professional casual clothes. All right. You don't need to wear a suit, but look like a nurse. And like I said, you might have a simulation interview. So let's leave the short shorts and the high heels at home. And so that we can give that best first impression. 1st 10 steps. Be confident in how you walk. Be confident in how you talk. And 1st 10 words. Think about what you might say. Have a greeting or thanks for having me here today.
Because this is going to translate to how you introduce yourself to the patients that you'll work with, my final thoughts are we all have something called impostor syndrome. So we all feel like we shouldn't belong and it's not for us. But let me reassure you that you just feel uncomfortable because it's not something that you've done before. It's not because you're incapable. You've done the study, you've done the work, you're ready to launch your career as a nurse or a midwife. So you're absolutely do belong.
We all walk around in an interview thinking I could have said this, or I should have said that or how disappointing. But I'll say just be gentle with yourself with how you go in the interview and there are outcome afterwards. All experience is valuable and if you're not successful at that first interview, take that feedback, rise up and try again. Like I said, your career is a marathon. It's not a Sprint. So where you start is not where you're going to end up. My final thing is be prepared.
Think about what you might be asked. Think about what you're going to wear. Think about the questions that you want to ask to have that dialogue and practise. Practise, practise. Thanks very much, ladies.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
A very, very wise words though. Thank you very much for that inspiring conversation. Natasha, over to you.

Natasha Moon  
Thank you, Angelina. Thanks, Renee. I'm just going to give a little bit of a plug to the Children's Health Queensland Graduate Nurse Programme. Our Graduate Nurse programme is based here at the Children's Hospital here at South Brisbane. For anyone who's not sure about that.
Thanks, Elin. Next slide, please. So our graduate nurse programme, we have three different.
Portfolios. So when you apply for us, you can either go into the acute paediatrics which covers our.
Acute medical.
Acute surgical.
And our quick care areas, we also have a perioperative which is specifically for our perioperative areas and we also have two mental health units. So we have a dedicated a dedicated mental health programme for our graduate nurses as well.
The Graduate Nurse programme here at CHQ is for 12 months. It is part time, so 64 hours a fortnight, which equates to 8 hour 8 hour shifts, so 8 shifts per fortnight. We have a week long orientation programme to start with, along with four dedicated study days during the course of the programme and a significant number of supernumerary days for you. There's lots of opportunities for professional development. We have mentorship programmes and we are used the adult learning principles.
As part of our graduate Nurse programme, we have our transition support programme.
So you have two different options for this. If you would like to on completion of this programme, successfully articulate to two units in a graduate cert in paediatrics, you would do the articulation mode, which would require an exam and written assignment at the end. Or you can do the staff development mode, which will give you some great skills and knowledge of paediatrics, but you won't get those two units for in a Grad cert.
So I've just listed some frequently asked questions for Children's Health Queensland that we get a lot. I thought it might be helpful to some of you. So the first one that we I get a lot is if I have not completed a placement at QCH, will it affect my chance of getting an interview for us? The answer is no. Will not. All applicants are recruited on a merit based process and we understand that it isn't possible for everyone to be able to come into a placement here with us.
Another question, is there a choice of ward area so for the perioperative and the mental health unit that must be identified as part of your application and you don't do any rotations you dis stay in those areas and for any ward area preferences are certainly taken into consideration but unfortunately we're not able to guarantee that depending on what the number of applicants are that apply and what spaces we have available in each area.
Questions around rotation so mentioned before Periopen mental health.
Only within those departments and there are no other rotations for our acute paediatrics.
We also get a lot of questions about employment at the end of our grad programme. There is an opportunity submit as an expression of interest for positions in any areas across Children's Health Queensland, even if you haven't worked in it, including our paediatric intensive care unit.
So I just want to flag for anyone who is interested in coming to work at Children's Health Queensland, so your application through the portal for your selecting your preferences, you need to select a Children's Health Queensland HHS as your first preference.
We only will receive candidate information from those who nominate us as your first preference. We will not have access to anyone who puts us down as your second preference.
When it comes to the clinical preferences, after you've selected us as your health service.
Then you can put paediatrics which will automatically assume that the acute paediatrics, and there's also an option to select mental health and perioperative as well.
So I'd like to give you some further tips on your application. There's been a lot of information already given you to you today, but what I would say is please read and follow the directions on the prospectus on the Queensland Health Graduate Portal page. Please ensure your contact details are actually entered on your application.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to contact you if your e-mail address that you've put has got one number or one letter slightly incorrect.
And unfortunately, you won't progress to the next stage if we don't receive any further information from you.
And so Please ensure you're reading all your emails in case we do send you out something to complete a questionnaire or any information about assessment dates, OK.
We do accept work references from a line manager where you have been employed. This doesn't need to be clinical as long as you have one reference from a clinical facilitator.
So I'd like to just to take a moment just to go through again on your cover letter, because this is really your opportunity to sell yourself, OK. There is no opportunity to put a resume in the portal. That's your cover letter, is it? So you're wanting to sell yourself to us. OK, so use clear and direct language, put the most important information first. Tell us, why do you want to come and work for us? What about chq inspires you to apply? What experience have you had working with children and families?
Now this doesn't have to be clinical placements.
This doesn't have to be anything that you've done at uni. This could be something that you've done. You know the volunteer or paid work in another industry as well.
Tell us why you're a great candidate. What would make you stand out?
It's also really important to check and to recheck your content. Get someone else to read it and make sure that it makes sense to someone else. I'll always shovel, check your spelling and grammar, and please limit it to one page.
So what's next? So after all of the applications, are the portal have closed and each HHS has received their applications?
They will review the applications and anyone who's meritorious will be invited to the next phase of the recruitment process. Every HHS will be different about what that looks like, but any applicant who doesn't make it to the first phase will be returned to the central pool as soon as possible so that their next preferred HHS can then review your application.
So for here at chq, our shortlisting process is the phase one will include a completion of a survey, which will be sent out to you via e-mail, and any candidate who does not submit the survey. By the time that's specified will not progress to phase two.
Phase two will be an invitation to attend an assessment centre.
And the assessment centre, all candidates must be able to present in person on the day that you've been allocated, and this will include interview and scenario based assessments.
So we would recommend that you arrive 15 minutes early to the assessment centre that so that you have time to calm yourself.
And to just you know, take a moment before you go in. OK. What I would say is the panel are really trying to gather some information on the applicants and we'll try and create an environment that is as is as relaxed as possible. OK, as Renee has said earlier, you may get questions in advance or you may get questions without notice.
So we have a think about what you what you might like to show us before you come in. OK. All questions will relate to the role and explore how you may meet the criteria of a registered nurse. And there may be questions about the values.
Reflect on your transferable knowledge and skills. That would be one of the key tips that I would flag for you.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you very much, Natasha. That was fantastic. Thank you. We'll now move on to the questions that you've submitted in the chat and I can see quite a few there. And I've noticed that some of the panel have answered some of those. So I'll go through those as much as we can in the few minutes remaining in our webinar, we'll do our very best to answer as many as we can the QR code on the screen will take you to the nursing and Midwifery graduate programme website where you can view more information.
If you have any questions at all and you're not comfortable in posting in the chat, please feel free to send an e-mail to our graduate enquiries e-mail address, which is on the screen now.
So our first question is for the graduate programme, can we have a hospital and age care rotation in the same year? So, for example, Roma Hospital has an aged care West Haven aged care. Can we do six months and then six months in a hospital, Renee or Natasha? Are you able to comment on your programmes?

Renee Langridge  
I can start there. So for Metro South, all available programmes and rotations that we are currently aware of are listed on our graduate programmes website, so I can't answer for Roma, but what I would encourage you to do is if that is something that you're interested in, head on over to their website because that's where they will have information on that and if it's not available they should have a contact e-mail.
Somebody that you can address that question with?
Typically we.
We do not.
Have rotations between 2HH SS within AH, HHS and within those facilities there are some established programmes, but if you're asking if it's between 2HH SS, I'm not aware of that happening, especially in the metro area, Natasha.

Natasha Moon  
Yeah, I think Renee's answered all those that points for me as well. I don't have anything more to say. We're the same.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank.
Wonderful. Thank you. Another one here is, if someone's moving from Interstate, are they given equal preference? The answer is yes. Everyone is actually reviewed and they progress on Order of Merit. So if you're coming from Interstate, please go ahead and and know that you will be reviewed and just treated like all other applicants. Order and merit. If the area would like to. If you would like to work in.
Not listed as available in that public facility. Should you choose another preference, I would say yes. What about you, Renee and or Natasha?

Renee Langridge  
Thanks, Angie. Across the state, we do work very hard to be able to provide up to date and accurate information to the applicants about what is available. So whatever is listed on websites or where you ever got that information, if you went to an open day or if you went to a careers day hosted by your university, whatever is shared is up to date at the time. So I think the example in the chat was looking for an ICU with.
Gold Coast University Hospital. If they've not listed that, it's probably 'cause they they're not offering it at this time. The best way to confirm again go to their website, e-mail their coordinators, get their most accurate information that you can. But general rule of thumb, if we're not advertising it, it's not available.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Great. Thank you, Renee. We do have a couple of questions in terms of cover letters. So one here is can we address the cover letter to the NUM? I would suggest no, keep it generic and to whom it may concern. So that will cover you there. Another question is in relation to can you do 2 pages? Again my recommendation is stick to one. There are many hundreds of applications that our team are reviewing.
So please limit it to one and make it quite powerful in your response in that one page.
Another question, is it OK to upload more than two referees? Michaela, do you have information on the system in terms of that?

Mikala Power  
You only are required to upload to referee reports. I did state that if you're still undergoing placement, you can mention that in your in your cover letter that you will be able to provide a further reference if that's only if you can't provide the two clinical references. So I think it's handy to know that at least you have that full back of being able to provide the second clinical referee report after you've finished placement. But we do prefer to clinical.
Referee reports. But in the event that you can't provide them then we will be able to accept. I mean we'll we'll have to accept a non clinical one, but if you can provide at a later stage a a second one then we the hhss will be able to look at that as well.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Great. Thank you, Michaela. A couple of questions here. In terms of the webinar, this webinar has been recorded and it will be available on our website in the coming weeks, hopefully next week. So please keep an eye on that. If you would like to watch it again.

Mikala Power  
Thank.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Another question, some of these have been answered.
Can we wear our university scrubs for face to face? I think Renee answered that very well earlier on, but please make sure that you abide by the code of conduct.
And particularly in your dressing and your wearing of the uniform, that would be very important for the interview.
If an interview is face to face and you're away, can you do this via zoom or teams? I would recommend that you just make contact and discuss this with the hospital and health service that have offered offered you an interview and I'm sure they would go out of their way to support and help any way they can. Anything else there perhaps Renee or Natasha.

Renee Langridge  
We do appreciate that we have Interstate applicants and also that many of you perhaps may actually be doing your final clinical placement and you know you may be at the mercy of your university about where that is. So we do appreciate that getting to a face to face interview may be difficult. The key here is concise, clear and prompt communication. All right. So if you are contacted for an interview.
Be checking your phones, be checking your emails.
Regularly so that you can communicate if you're anticipating any difficulty in getting to the interview time and day and place that is allotted. Typically we do try and do work arounds there. So like I said, just clear prompt communication about how that is going to go for you.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Renee. Just one final question before we finish up today is.
one For you, Natasha, in terms of Children's Health, QLD.
Would the applicant have to preference chq as number one over Gold Coast health for their application to be viewed by chq?

Natasha Moon  
Yes, that's correct. So we will only receive the applicants who select CHQHHS as their first preference.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. OK, well, thank you everyone for joining us. We are out of time. However, I feel like we have answered most of your questions. What we'll do is we'll try and theme those and we'll put some information on our website or if you would like to have a bit more of a conversation with us, please e-mail our graduate enquiries e-mail and we'll get back to you as promptly as we can. I'd like to wish you all the very best and good luck. And as I mentioned, we will.
Warmly welcome you into our professions.
Thank you, everyone. Good afternoon.

Rosie Borey  
Alright, welcome.
In today's webinar, graduate Nursing and midwifery opportunities for First Nations applicants.
Firstly, I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands in which we are all meeting today and dialling in from for me. I'm here in my engine and that's on Yuggera and Turrbal country. I pay my respects to elders both past and present, and all of you who have joined us online today.
Both our current and emerging First Nations nursing and midwifery leaders.
My name is Rosie and I'm a proud new Ngugi and Noonuccal descendant from Quandamooka Country. I began my nursing career 17 years ago with a graduate programme at the operating theatre at the Queensland Children's Hospital and I'm currently the First Nations nursing director at the Office of the Chief Nurse Officer and I will be leading today's webinar with Melina. Before we commence today's webinar and introduce our panel. There are a couple of housekeeping things to note.
Firstly, this webinar is recorded and will be available on the Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme website in the coming weeks. Please ensure your mics are muted if you have any questions, please post them in the chat. We'll have time to answer these at the end.
Anyone on the chat can see your information you post, so please don't put any personal information there on our hand over to Melina.

Melina Connors  
Hi everyone. I'm Melina. I am a proud Gurindji woman and I am the First Nations to midwifery director in the Queensland Health Office of the Chief Midwife Officer so my journey into midwifery was by identifying the need to create a maternity experience that was culturally safe and to make a difference in the maternity care that our people, women and families were accessing and this was part of because my own experience in the maternity system in my current role.
I oversee the coordination and ongoing implementation and governance.
Of the growing deadly family strategy and continue to support First Nations midwifery driving HealthEquity and also ensuring that our cultural needs of ways of knowing being and doing are embedded into the system, I'll now introduce you to our panel. I'll introduce Megan Briffa first. Megan is a proud Aboriginal woman, a descendant of the Gubbi Gubbi and Wakka Wakka clan. Megan recently began working in her role as a clinical midwifery consultant in the Office of the Chief Midwife on the growing deadly family strategy.
Megan has always had and still holds a strong passion to improve outcomes for First Nations people across the country through continuity of and culturally safe practise. Prior to Megan coming into our office, she worked as a clinical caseload midwife at Dalby Hospital, predominantly caring for First Nations families across the birth continuum. Prior to working at Dalby, Megan worked in Weeper, situated in the Far North Queensland on Alngith lands and provided antenatal and post Natal care to the surrounding communities. In the mid, the same midwifery group practise model.
Thank you very.

Rosie Borey  
Our next panel member is Chrystal. Chrystal is a proud Aboriginal woman, a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people of Eidsvold QLD Crystal grew up on Quandamooka country and is an active member of the community. Chrystal spent almost two decades working in indigenous social housing in community whilst also completing her nursing degree. Having a passion for child health, Chrystal commenced her nursing career at Queensland Children's Hospital, completing her graduate year in surgical.
Since then, Chrystal now divides her time between surgical and the Queensland Children's Hospital MOB ED, the MOB ED team is the is a First Nations clinical lead team, providing a culturally safe model of care for patients and families attending the emergency department at Queensland Children's Hospital, the MOB ED team have won multiple awards, including most recently a Queensland Health Clinical Excellence Award. CHrystal has a strong passion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Islander Child health.
And strives for HealthEquity in all areas. As a mother of a beautifully autistic daughter, Chrystal also has a keen interest in the care of neurodiverse children. Welcome Chrystal.
Our final panel member is Lila. Lila is a proud Cloncurry born woman, mother of four, grandmother of six and a direct descendant of the Aboriginal Waanyi Gangalidda and Garawa people and Torres Strait Islander Erub Darnley Island families in the Torres Strait Islands.
Lila's proudest moment was graduating as a mature aged registered nurse in 2019, she worked for three years as a clinical nurse after completing a 12 month graduate programme with mental health services.
Lila has worked for 40 years across community, non government sector, private business, state government, federal government, local government and non government organisations supporting the advancement of social, legal and health justice
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, she graduated from James Cook University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Nursing Sciences, majoring in rural and remote health, and currently enrolled in studying 2 postgraduate courses, alcohol and other drugs and leadership and management. She says, We live to learn and serve others. I seize every opportunity to stay current and educated so that I can help myself and others in this world.
Most recently, her her most recent achievement was being selected by the Australian College of Nursing to complete the 2024 Emerging LEADER programme. She says that the programme will guide me to understand what it takes to become a leader who is responsible for our people.
What I want is to be humble, empathetic, responsible leader with a wide perspective on all health matters. Welcome, Lila. We also have a few of our team from the Office of the Chief Nurse, Colin, Mikala and
Angie joining us this afternoon.

Melina Connors  
Queensland Health is committed to working with First Nations communities and advancing healthcare, growing our First Nations workforce, whom have a significant role in a health system. In today's session, we'll provide you with a summary of the hospitals. Some of the opportunities that exist, and.
Or that is available.
From our deadly panel on their personal journeys from.
midwifery nurses and midwifery leaders, whilst we briefly cover the topics of choosing your clinical preference, preparing your application and cover letter and preparing.
For your had you to watch the previous webinar, prepare to succeed, which will be available on the graduate programme site for more depth in details on these topics. If you have any questions, please post them in the chat and we'll have time at the end to answer these.
Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme supports graduate nurses and midwives in transitioning from academic study to clinical practise. You're supportive and inclusive environment and can choose from many settings to work in, including metropolitan, regional, rural and remote settings. You can work in hospitals, patients, homes, schools and communities across Queensland. As a First Nations nurse or midwife. You can also have impact in your own community.
The nursing career structure offers diverse pathways for growth in clinical, education, management, leadership and research roles. QLD Health is dedicated to supporting you throughout your journey and ensuring your success in any path you choose. Upon completing the graduate programme, you can apply to work in various QLD health facilities. As a midwife you have the option to start your career in midwifery, continuity of care, remodels or specialised in specific areas such as maternity.
neonatal and family care with practise consolidation and further experience, you can pursue expanded practise roles or consultancy positions, including the clinical, midwifery consultant, lactation consultant, or an endorsed midwife.
To apply for a graduate position with us, apply through our graduate portal, this portal is open now and closes on Sunday the 4th of August. Please check the graduate Nursing and Midwifery website to confirm your eligibility for a graduate programme position.
As.
you would know, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander population is diverse. QLD alone has many language, tribal or nation groups. As you can see in the image on the left. Within Queensland Health we have 16 hospital and health services or we refer to them as hhs's across the state.
With HSS, there are a number of facilities. Some HHS have multiple hospitals as well as smaller, smaller health centres, community clinics or Primary Health centres, for example Townsville, so Townsville, HHS has 12 hospitals and 13 community health services.
There a HHS that service large First Nations populations who you might be aware of and have more opportunity.
to work with mob. Should this interest you? For example, these areas up north and out West such as Torres and Cape Cairns and Hinterland.
Southwest, northwest and Townsville. We know the value of First Nations nurses and midwives working in our their own communities, so if this this is something you're interested, please indicate this in your application.
Graduate positions are available in a wide variety of clinical areas in some graduate programmes, particularly in regional, rural or remote areas, your graduate programme may include working across multiple departments or facilities, and you may rotate through both primary and tertiary care.
In some HHS the programme specific with First Nations populations such as Waijungbah Jarjums at the Gold Coast, the Deadly Ears programmes at the children's the Southern Queensland Centre for Excellence at Metro South at Inala.
And then now remember, maternity service at Metro North. Whilst not all these are accepting new graduates, in order to note their existence, should you wish to pursue a role in one of those services, follow following your graduate programme.
When choosing your preference, it's important to know that.
Associated with each region. Consider whether you'd like to work location preferences and what clinical areas you'd like to work in clinical preferences. Each health service has a website that lists its hospital and services many health. Many health services have dedicated web pages promoting nursing and midwifery.
Careers. It's worth exploring these sites to.
Form your decisions.

Rosie Borey  
As Melina mentioned, there are a number of programmes that are dedicated to First Nations health populations and take a holistic approach to health and well-being. The links on the screen now are a couple of examples of such services.
Links to these videos will now be shared in the chat for you to view as well.
There is also support available for First Nations graduates. Whilst this does differ from hospital and health service and is evolving some of the support you could expect to receive includes cultural support. You will have the opportunity to connect with other First Nations employees. Some HHS may even have a cultural mentor whilst others you may find connection with peers through First Nations start networks. Through these networks you may also have opportunities to participate in community events such as NAIDOC Week.
Celebrations and other important community gatherings. The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives, (CATSINaM) is the national peak body representing and advocating for First Nations nurses and midwives, and through their membership there is cultural support opportunities as well. Membership is free and the link to their membership will be shared in the chat now.
Other examples in of support include the Queensland, Queensland, Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery and Midwifery Union First Nations branch.
And the support available for First Nations graduates is evolving. However, we are committed to understanding and supporting your cultural needs. We encourage you to reach out to your line manager for this.
Other support is training and development. There are also many additional training and development opportunities, depending on your career goals. As an employee of Queensland Health, you are entitled to a professional development leave allowance which will allow you to participate and undertake undertake further professional development activities.
If in the future you are interested in undertaking further studies or obtaining further qualifications, there are also a number of scholarships available to First Nations nurses and midwives through third party providers such as the Australian College of Nurses and Australian Colleges of Midwives. Scholarship info can be found via the link, which is being shared in the chat now.
Rural and remote incentives, there are also additional incentives for those wishing to work in rural and remote areas. This includes travel and accommodation provisions, or allowances, professional development allowances and bonus payments, which increase each year after service. These benefits, along with a loan, may be worth up to $25,000 per year, on top of Queensland's already attractive package.
To find out more about these benefits.
Is it the website which is being shared in the chat now
The rural remote pathway there may also be opportunity to participate in rural remote pathway to accelerate your career while providing compassionate care to communities across Queensland in the two year programme, you'll complete your graduate year the first year in a rural and or remote location and your second year in a hospital.
I'll hand over to you Mikala.

Mikala Power  
Good afternoon. My name's Mikala and I'm going to be talking to you a little bit about choosing your location preferences.
So on the screen now you can see the list of hospital and health services or HHS locations for both group A&B Group, A HHS that are in more rural and remote or sorry, rural and regional locations and if you're interested in working in one of these HHS, you only need to provide one preference. Historically these HHS have not received a significant number of applications when compared to other to available positions.
And often applicants are local and therefore this is the area that they wish to remain in. Group B contains HHS who receive a significant number of applications in comparison to Group A. These hhss are typically in Metropolitan city centres and surrounding areas. It's important to note the Hhsc preference first will consider your application first and foremost during the application process. The form will prompt you to preference your first HHS HHS.
You will then have the option to select from the drop down which work facilities you prefer to work out. If your first preference is a HHS in Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences. You can, however, provide at least three and up to six work location preferences if you want.
If your first preference is in a HHS in Group B, you must provide a second preference. If your second preference is in Group A, you are not required to provide any other preferences. If your first two HHS preferences are in Group B.
Must provide 1/3 preference, but you can provide additional additional HHS preferences up to six in total. Please note if you select RRP or rural and remote pathway you will have the option to select central Cluster Southern cluster or both specific details relating to available RRP or rural and remote pathway locations cannot be determined till after the application portal has closed. If if you are interested in a roller rate career, Please ensure that you preference.
rural and remote HHS during your selection.
And not RRP. To read more about rural and facilities I have actually linked that in the chat. Be sure to list your preferences in order from one to six, one being your most preferred area to work in and six being your least preferred in the event you are not selected to undergo the interview process for your first preference. Your application will then move to you to the next preference you selected, including more preferences enhances your chances of being considered for more opportunities, so please keep this in mind.
Once you select a HHS, you will have the option to select facilities you wish to work up. By default, all facilities are selected. You will not be able to select a HHS more than once researcher locations beforehand to make informed choices.
Upon choosing your clinical preferences, please select the clinical area or department you wish to work in the most. Please be aware you are not guaranteed a position in your first preference clinical area. However, it does give each HHS a fair idea of the particular clinical area you wish to work in. The online application process will ask you to nominate your clinical preferences in order form. There are a few different options to choose from for Midwifery 1, being Midwifery, group practise or continuity of midwifery care model 2.
Gifts across all areas, midwifery, practise and three where can one specific area of midwifery practise? So for example, post Natal ward, the online application process will ask you to list your clinical preferences in order of highest to lowest priority. For example, if you wish to like in work in paediatrics then you would select paediatrics as your first preference. Not all HHS or hospitals offer all clinical fields. It's important you consider a number of clinical preferences.
Really think about where your passion lies, the clinical area that you were interested in working in and what specific clinical direction you would like to move towards, whether that be for example surgical community or cardiac?
Now I'm just going to hand you back to Rosie, and she's going to speak to you about preparing your application and interviews.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks, Mikala. So as mentioned earlier, for information about the application process and preparing for interview, I encourage you to watch the webinar that was held yesterday, which will be available for viewing on the website in the coming days.
The aim of the cover letter is to provide the employer with more details about who you are, your motivations and your passion.
We know that cultural identity may be a central part of who you are. Therefore, we encourage you to identify where you're from as part of the application process. For example, who your mob is.
Other things to include would be why you want to work in a particular HHS if, for example, you've selected Gold Coast because of a particular interest in the way jungba jargans model.
Mention this in your cover letter too too. If working in this HHS means that you get to stay working on country within your community. Be explicit about this. It is also a question on the in the application process.
If you have a passion for working with mob and contributing to the improved health outcomes with our people, make sure you mention this in your cover letter and there is a free text space in the application portal for you to do this as well.
Highlight any personal experience or professional experience you have already gained.
For example, if you were a health worker, a cadet, a usen, or usim, an Ain or a previously employed in any other capacity, mention what this experience meant to you.
If you've participated in Community programmes or if you have a personal interest, make sure you mention these as they tell us a bit more about yourself if you progress to the next steps after the application, you will be contacted by the hospital and health service to arrange an interview.
To just and to discuss next steps in the process.
When preparing for your interview, it's a good idea to know the HHS, as mentioned, each facility has its own website which explains what services are provided by them, preempt some of the questions you might be asked and write these down. For example, what were your main motivations for selecting a PR particular clinical preference? You might be asked to provide an introduction about yourself. Think about some of the things you might want to share. It might be about who you are, where you're from.
Your family, your interests.
You may be asked to provide an example of a time you did something. Sometimes you'll be asked how you managed conflict or how you receive feedback when providing a response or an example, it's good to follow a framework. This helps formulate and organise your response. An example would be situation, task, acts, action and resolve.
As a First Nations applicant, you might also be asked about your cultural identity. Think about what this means to you.
If you don't feel a strong connection to your culture, that is OK. If it's something you want to explore, mention that.
Again, write some potential questions down and practise them at in the mirror at home. This always helps relieve nerves and helps you feel better prepared.
First impressions do count, so arrive on time. Dress, smart casual, show respect and interest in the process and be present, not distracted on phones, etcetera.
If you have any questions about the position or the role that you're applying to, write this down so that you can ask them at the end of the interview.
So now we come to the the fun part, the good part.
It's our it's time to hand over to our panel and open up to you as students to be able to ask any of our panel members any burning questions you may have.
Our panel members today are first experienced First Nations leaders in Queensland Health, so I encourage you to ask them questions about their experiences and how perhaps they got to where they are now.
But if you have any technical questions about the application process or the portal, we'll hand over to our workforce team to answer those.
So to break the ice, I can't see any questions in the chat as of yet, so I might go ahead and break the ice by asking our panel a couple of questions.
And I will be monitoring the chat, so feel free if you have something that pops up along the way to just pop that in there in the chat.
So we might throw over to you, Chrystal. So Chrystal, you mentioned that you're working in Queensland's only tertiary paediatric facility and I know that paediatrics is a really highly sought after clinical preference. Do you have any advice for First Nations graduates wanting to work in paediatrics or in First Nations models of care such as lobby D where you also work?

Chrystal Endean  
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Rosie. Welcome, graduates. Hi. I'm Chrystal. As Rosie mentioned, I work at Queensland Children's Hospital, so I guess as Mikala and Melina and Rosie have suggested, really do your research into which hospitals or health services that you're wanting to go into. So look to see if you want to go into paediatrics. Be aware that some smaller regional hospitals have paediatrics there, but they also share their staffing across.
Be open to that as well.
I guess.
In thinking about your education experience, if you haven't completed all your pracs, if you have any influence over your pracs and writing to who's in control of your pracs and and seeing if you can possibly do your pracs within that environment, a paediatric environment is always helpful, and if you can't, if you've already completed, that's not, that's OK. There's webinars, there's workshops, there's other education opportunities out there for you to get, I guess.
Focusing on your paediatric skills, paediatric is different in the way that it's not just one-on-one patients where we're focusing on family centred care and and with us mob's different. So it it might not just be a mum and a dad, it it's whole family and and kinship carers and things like that. So we got to be really open with our mob and think about it that way and thinking about your networks and connections, who who do you know that could mentor you and could provide you insight into paediatric?
And what information they can provide to nurture you in your role?
I guess showing your adaptability and resilience is always a good they're great qualities to have when you're going into paediatrics. For me, it was when I came in I had a very open mind into. I just want to work in paediatrics. That's where I wanted to be. So I was very open. I didn't have a specific area. I just wanted to get into PEDs and that and then I just followed the pathways that it led me and we're very lucky that HealthEquity, the snowball started rolling.
And then MOB ED came about. So I'm very fortunate to be working with mob for mob and and I hope that that you know, happens across all the other health services as well.

Rosie Borey  
Store. That's really, really fabulous advice for our graduates. I will just jump to the chat now because we do have one question before we go to the other panel members.
From dabia, I hope I've said that right. So the question is for Torres and Cape Services, will interviews be conducted face to face or over video conference? So each of the HHS managed their interview processes?
Internally, and some are slightly different.
However, I would expect that if you were located in the torus and the Cape, they would prioritise a face to face interview.
But certainly for people not living in the region, I'm sure they would accommodate a a virtual interview. But like I said, each hospital and health service is slightly different. I hope that answers your question.
I've muted myself. We might hand over now to Lila.
And ask Lila a bit of a question about her experience. So you began your career in a mental health grad programme you mentioned up at Northwest.
Can you tell us a little bit about what it is like working in your community and working on country and what advice do you have for First Nations graduates wanting to work in Community?

Lila Pigliafiori  
Thank you, Rosie. Welcome graduates as well. Yeah. I I completed the the first year grad programme with mental health and the support was phenomenal. I I think it was the best choice made for me when I started out.
One of the things that I found was that you once you get start going through.
You learn, you learn, you learn.
Training becomes.
A second thing so.
When you embark on your time when you start as nurses out there, you will learn so much in your first year and I would really encourage that you just learn, take it all on board and from that learning you'll start to bring together all the information about where you want to go as a, as a nurse in the future.
But mental health.
There was such a need. There's not enough nurses.
That put their hands up to come out and work and rural and remote health so.
You know, they're always looking for nurses to come and join the ranks out here. But what I what happened is I ended up leaving mental health and I wanted to move around to get a bit of experience after the programme, I went into a nurse educator role and that was very rewarding as well because I got to work with First Nations people right across our.
Our district and that was to encourage them to look at ways on how they can build upon their careers and.
Become the best you know vision of themselves.
I then.
I kind of went back and forth, but look, it's nursing's just so rewarding you. You move around in circles, but you're always learning. I'm now sitting as a clinical nurse, consultant with a Todd, and I absolutely love it. So my advice to graduates is that when you start out, get to know your cultural group in the Community first.
Understand what they through their eyes. What does health mean to them? So that when you're working, you're working with that lens on and be a learner first. Don't rush it because you've got plenty of years ahead of you to train, and then you'll create the person you want to be the nurse you want to be or midwife.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks, Lila. That's fantastic.
I will jump over to Megan now. Remember, everyone, any questions? Anything that pops up when they're our panel are talking. Feel free to pop your questions in the chat.
So, Megan, you did your grad programme in midwifery group practise in a model working with First Nations, women and babies up in wika. Can you tell us a little bit about your decision to work in this type of model? What were the benefits? What you found most rewarding?

Megan Briffa  
Afternoon graduates. Welcome. I know it's really nerve racking time, so I just want everyone to take a nice breath because I remember this very clearly.
So I did. I chose to take the plunge and I moved up to Weipa in Far North Queensland to work with mob up there and help set up there make we're free group practise. It was the most rewarding opportunity I've ever had culturally. Like the immersion, I was absolutely a guest there. It wasn't my mob, so it was so special.
After I built really strong rapport with community, when you go out to community and you know they come in and they're like, oh, we're going for a fish, this I come down and you'll grab a fish, then just getting to know the whole family and all the dynamics. It's was absolutely so rewarding. Also got to work to your full scope of practise, which I found really important.
I have trained as the nurse previously and I went to a tertiary facility and I loved it because I had lots and lots of people around where I could see the button, but I also the special thing about being.
And Weipa remote with that. I had to cannulate. I had to draw blood through my path, and that in itself has just made me the clinician that I am today and given me even more opportunities from having that experience.
So yeah, it was just really special and really rewarding. So if you're thinking about going remote, I think a lot of people are a bit anxious about doing it. But 110% say give it a go, just you will get to know, you know, especially as a midwife having midwife free group practise and the continuity of the patients you're looking after. It helps with your learning 110% and hand of my heart best position I've ever made.
Only encourage you all to think about it, and if you're on the edge, aren't sure and absolutely go for it.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks, Megan. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm feeling really inspired and I think one thing to note is, you know, coming into Queensland health is you've got all these deadly role models who've done amazing things in their career, who are there to support you, who've got your back, who will be there to answer questions and be with you along the journey. So that's really encouraging and really exciting.
We've got a comment in the chat from Tara who said.
Best placement has been her rural one, 100%, so thanks for sharing that Tara, that's great.
Great to hear.
Anyone else got any questions to pop in the chat and in the meantime, is there anything from the panel that you know through this conversation you've something that's popped to mind that you'd really love to share with?
Any of the the graduates considering working with Queensland Health.
OK.
We've got a couple more minutes.
I'm Megan.

Megan Briffa  
I just wanted to say to everyone too, because this is so fresh in my brain. Still, don't beat yourself up if you don't get your first preference or your second preference and know there's pathways and there's ways to get to where you want to be because I certainly did not get my first preference and I'm forever grateful I didn't because that's what's given me all the opportunities and made me who I am as a clinician. So I know it can be a really nerve wracking time, really look after yourself. self-care is so important and just know that you're all absolutely.
Incredible. And you will get there and sometimes you.
A different route to everyone else. They don't play the comparison game at this point.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks, Megan.
We have a couple more minutes, so I might ask.
Any of the panel members who want to just pop their hand up. I know that for me working in Queensland health it was really important to connect with other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives and staff.
How would you? What would you recommend for graduates in terms of reaching out to their networks within a hospital and health service? Was there something that you did?
That you would recommend or yeah, anyone willing to share your own experience.
Chrystal.

Chrystal Endean  
I guess for me, I'd always worked in Community and I always worked with mob, so coming to a big organisation, a huge hospital, I was a bit like oh wow, this is very overwhelming. So for me, I sort out my mob and so that's what I did. And we started as I just knew one one other person and that was OK and then it just went from there. I was really fortunate that HealthEquity came into Queensland Children's Hospital not after I started. So we kind of we grew, we grew and grew and our workforce continues to grow.
So I I make it part of what I do, I mentor graduates and things like that to build out our mob up and to keep us, you know, active with each other and active in our work and to also stay connected because you know, it's part of what we do is our connection is so important to us. And if we're connected in our work, we do better.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks Chrystal Lila or did I'm sorry did get Lila. You had your hand up.

Lila Pigliafiori  
Yeah, graduate, similar to Chrystal's experience there. One of the things that I did because this northwest where I live is being my stomping ground for years. So what I did was I actually became a navigator. Anybody who was new coming to the hospital from our communities, I used to take them around and introduce them to the staff, to the Community, to other.
People that were just sitting in and around the hospital so that I could create this comfort for them. So I did the reverse and it depends on your personality, you know.
You you need to get out there, go in and say don't wait for them to say, oh, there's this Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander nurse working on surgical ward. Go and try and meet some of the groups and the different people so that they can say, oh, we know she's there now we can make sure that she gets tapped into everything that we're doing in the community.
And you'll be amazed at how much you will be included in things outside of your role as a nurse. You'll be it's very inclusive and it's so rewarding. You'll make many friends.

Rosie Borey  
Thanks Lila and Megan.

Megan Briffa  
The other really fantastic thing you can do is join the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives actually have a mentor/mentee programme, so you can be LinkedIn with aunties who've come before us with other people who are already working in the industry. And I think that is really important to have that connection well.

Rosie Borey  
Excellent. That's some really wonderful advice. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.
We will probably just move on to the next section now because we're almost out of time.
But again, if you've got any burning last minute questions, please pop them in the in the panel in the chat. Sorry. So thank you so much to our deadly panel. As I mentioned, I'm feeling really inspired by their really wonderful careers.
And how they've their journeys with Queensland health.
If you want more information that's specific to you as a First Nations graduate, there is a link which is now on the screen which you can follow For more information.
And there's also you can always reach out to us via this e-mail address if you have other questions after today. So that brings us to a close for today's webinar if you'd like to find out any more about the nursing in midwifery graduate programme.
Please do by visiting the link on the screen and as I mentioned, if you don't feel didn't feel comfortable posting your questions in the chat, you can always e-mail us at this e-mail address. So thank you for attending today's webinar. We wish you all the best in your career and look forward to seeing you in the future.
Thanks everyone.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Good afternoon and thank you for joining today's webinar. Before we begin, I recognise that most of the panel members and our team are joining this webinar in Brisbane from the country of the Jagera and Turrbal people.
I also recognise the traditional owners of the countries where you all join from today and the First Nations people present in this webinar.
I pay my respects to all elders past.
Present and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures and connections to the land and the waters of QLD.
My name is Angelina Zande-Wilkins and I'm the director of nursing in the Office of the Chief Nurse Officer.
Congratulations on completing your degree or near completing your degree. It's a very exciting time for you all and I warmly welcome you into the professions of nursing and midwifery.
This webinar is being recorded and will be available on the nursing and Midwifery graduate programme website in the coming days.
Please ensure your mics are muted. If you have any questions, please post them in the chat and we hope to answer them during this session.
Please also be aware that anyone can see this chat, so please don't post any personal information on the chat line.
This webinar is part of a series designed to help you launch your career as a nurse within Queensland Health.
Today's webinar will provide you with an introduction to a nursing career within Queensland Health and the opportunity to ask us any question you have about a nursing career with us.
I have worked in Queensland Health for over 41 years and worked in a number of different specialties throughout this time.
All of my career to date, though, had been in Metro South Health Hospital and Health services until just 12 months ago when I joined the Office of the Chief Nurse Officer as the Director of Nursing. I have a clinical background in the perioperative services, Emergency department and patient flow.
I'll just now briefly ask the panel members to introduce themselves and to highlight some of their involvement and their work areas throughout their career.
I'd also like to just extend apologies from Sally Jones, who was unable to attend today.
Firstly, I'll start with Amanda. Thank you, Amanda.

Amanda Naumann  
Thank you, Angelina. Hi everyone. My name is Amanda Naumann. I am the nurse educator for the graduate programmes on the Sunshine Coast. My background is emergency nursing and have worked nationally and internationally in emergency for over 20 years.
I have a passion for education and I enjoy my role as a graduate coordinator and I love to see the transition from a student nurse into a professional registered nurse and watching you transition and grow in your graduate year. So if you've got any questions today, we're here to help you.
And please let us know. Thanks so much for having me.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Amanda, over to you, Michelle.

Michelle Foster  
Thanks, Angie, and good afternoon, everybody. So my name is Michelle Foster and I'm the nursing director for workforce at the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, which has two campuses, Robina and Gold Coast. I've been nursing like Angie for many years. My clinical background is mostly been in intensive care unit and then the emergency Department, renal, respiratory, cardiothoracics.
Along the way as well.
I've certainly have always been passionate about our graduates because that is the you guys are our future and our future, not only for our workforce but our future for caring for our patients and their families whilst they're in any care facility or community setting. So thank you, Angie.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
So thank you, Michelle. We also have Mikala who is supporting the graduate programme from the Office of the Chief Nurse. And thank you for coming, Mikala.
The 2025 Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme supports graduate nurses to transition from academic study to clinical practise with no two days ever the same. Nursing is one of the most dynamic and rewarding jobs in healthcare.
You'll be part of a well structured and highly supported team that offers many learning and development opportunities to empower you in your career in health. We'll be with you every step of the way step of the way as we want you to succeed in whatever party choose.
Queensland Health has 16 hospital and health services.
Within each hospital and health service, there are a number of facilities. For example, there are six facilities within Metro North, including Caboolture, Redcliffe, Prince Charles, Surgical treatment and rehabilitation services and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
Graduate positions are available in a wide variety of clinical areas. In each health service from metropolitan cities.
To rural and remote locations.
There are unique benefits associated with each of these regions. For the Metropolitan Health Services, which are in the southeast corner of Queensland, they offer a range of clinical services, including tertiary services. During your 12 month programme.
The rural and remote remote health services may not have the variety of services that you would get in Metropolitan health services. However, what you will gain is invaluable experience and skills.
Due to the variety of patients you will be caring for during your graduate programme.
Firstly, consider where you would like to work your location preferences and what clinical areas you would like to work in your clinical preferences.
Each health service has a website that lists its hospital and services, and they have a dedicated web page promoting nursing and midwifery careers.
The Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate Programme website has a downloadable list of health service facilities and their specialty areas, which I encourage you to refer to.
For your convenience, we will now post these into the chat.
Please also refer to this link for recruitment information and HHS contacts.
I also encourage you to view the recording of our recent webinar prepared to succeed, which covers in more detail the process around selecting your location and clinical preferences and this will be available on our website in the coming days.
I will now hand to Mikala to provide a brief overview of this year's portal and any areas that may need further explanation. Thank you, Mikala.

Mikala Power  
Good afternoon. We have placed an asset 2025, registered nursing and graduate programme. Application Portal is now opened. The application portal will automatically close on Sunday the 4th of August 2024 at 11:59. So it's a hard close. So we will not be taking any late submissions. So please keep this in mind.
So now I'm going to talk a little bit about how to choose a hospital health service or HHS for more details regarding location preferences, please refer to the recorded prepared succeed webinar that will be posted on our website and has also been posted in this chat on the screen. Now you can see the list of hospital and health services or HHS locations for both group A&B Group, A HHS that are in more rural or regional locations. You are, if you're interested in working in one of these HHS, you are only.
Need to provide one preference. Historically these HHS have not received a significant number of applications when compared to available positions and often applicants are local and therefore this is the area that they wish to remain in. Group B contains HHS who receives a significant number of applications in comparison to Group A. These HHS are typically in Metropolitan city centres and surrounding areas. It's important to note.
The HHS preference for preference first.
We'll consider your application first and foremost during the application process. The form will prompt you to preference your first HHS. You will then have the option to select from the drop down which work facilities you prefer to work out. If your first preference is AHS in Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences. You can, however, provide at least three and up to six work facilities preferences if you want. If your first preference is AHS and Group B.
You must provide a second preference if your second preference is in Group A, you are not required to provide any other preferences. If your first two HHS preferences are in Group B, you must provide 1/3 preference, but you can provide additional HHS preferences up to six in total. Please note, if you select RRP or rural and remote path ray, you will have the option to select central Cluster Southern cluster or both specific details relating to available rrpp, RRP or RAW on remote pathways.
Locations cannot be determined till after the application portal has closed. If you are interested in a role in remote career, Please ensure that you preference brawl and remote HHS during your selection and not RRP. To read more about our rural and remote health facilities and working in rural areas, there will be a link provided in the chat.
So I'm going to talk about the clinical preferences upon choosing your clinical preferences, please select the clinical area or department you wish to work in the most. Not all HHS or hospitals offer all clinical fields. It's important you consider a number of clinical preferences. Really think about where your passion lies, the clinical areas that are interested you and what specific clinical direction you would like to move towards, whether that be for example surgical community or cardiac upon applying, there will be 6 clinical preference, clinical preferences you are asked to ask to rank from highest to lowest.
This is to help the HHS identify your clinical areas of interest and to therefore place you appropriately. Remember, this does not mean you will get a place in the clinical error area of your first choice. There is a free text box below the clinical preferences where you can indicate your preference. Examples might be emergency department intensive care unit or acute care settings.
I'm now going to throw a question to the panel. I might throw this one at you, Michelle. What advice would you give to the people when selecting their clinical preferences?

Michelle Foster  
Yes, it's a good question. I think over the years when we have seen significant number of graduates apply for Queensland health more than there are positions, I think it's really important that you consider.
In foremost trying to secure a position so very much the.
The areas that are preferenced the most are like your operating theatres. If they have graduates, your emergency department, your intensive care units, they are all very, very popular.
I wouldn't be suggesting in your first year that you preference those because you'll be up against a lot of competition.
I think it's about in your first year securing a position because you can always grow and then specialise after your transition year. So I think your aim is to try and secure a position in the HHS of your preference. I would suggest the areas that were always shortened.
And Angie might or Amanda might be able to chip in. Is our mental health services.
And also some of our medical services definitely very much surgical services and emergency and ICU are very, very popular. So that would be my recommendation, keep it very open, don't pick those specialty areas because it you'll be up against a lot of competition. Amanda, I I'm not sure if you would agree with that or you've got anything other comments in relation to that.

Amanda Naumann  
Thanks, Michelle. Yes, I yeah, absolutely agree. Alcohol need areas don't always get the applicants that they or clinical preferences choices. So sometimes we've got here on the Sunshine Coast, we've got an A residential aged care facility. And I know in a lot of hhs's there are government residential aged care facilities available as a clinical preference. Those aged care facilities also have a higher acuity as well. So it's not just aged care so.
Thinking about your transition year in one of the residential aged care facilities can help with your fundamentals of nursing, which can really put you in a great space for your second year. If you're looking at a critical care area or or an area of specialty that hasn't been offered in your first year. So that's always a good choice too.

Mikala Power  
Great. Thanks very much, Michelle and Amanda, that was really informative. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about preparing your application. All applicants must complete an online CV. There is no need to upload any individually formatted CV. This is to make sure we have all information captured in a standard format to complete this section, you'll need to include information about your education, clinical placements, including the time frames of these placements and employment history.
The full list of documentation is available in the graduate programme website for your viewing. The only documents you will be asked to provide is an upload of PDF format R1 cover letter, an academic transcript, whether that be official or unofficial. If you haven't graduated yet and two completed referee reports.
So I also have some frequently asked questions and I'm going to also speak about. So with cover letters these can be addressed generically, for example, to who may concern it should be an A4 page in length, and outline your motivations for applying for the role. Your passion for the profession and what you will bring to the team. If you have any specific reasons for selecting a hospital and health service or HHS or facility, please tell us why you want to work in that location.
This cover letter should be pitched towards your first preference hospital health service. If your application moves to later preferences, the HHS recruitment staff will consider the text accordingly.
And in regards to reference reports, please use a graduate programme Referee report template that you can find on our website.
In the how to apply a page, the registered nursing and midwifery graduate programme requires 2 reference reports to be uploaded to our portal. Please note the graduate programme.
Please note that graduate programme has direct oh sorry. Please note the graduate graduate programme also accepts last year's template format. A clinical referee report is preferred by hospital and health services. A clinical supervisor with someone who has your direct knowledge of clinical practise and can speak about your clinical background. So this can be a, you know, a numb or a unit nurse, unit manager and nurse educators in some cases.
A nursing or midwifery student will be allocated a supervisor or buddy.
Thought the student and reports back to the clinical facilitator or educator. Therefore, a registered nurse or midwife would be an appropriate reference.
Your non clinical reference will need to be if you cannot provide true clinical references, you can provide a second non clinical reference. However your non clinical reference must be completed by a line manager or a general manager so someone who can vouch for your clinical thinking and your teamwork.
I'm still going to touch a little bit on visas.
So you can apply whilst on your student visa. However, any hospital and health service will require confidence that you'll be able to hold a visa with rights to work in Australia for that period of time or your employment time. I would suggest you mention in your cover letter that you will have the appropriate working visa by the time you are ready for employment. So when considering your application, the HHS will will have confidence that you'll have the rights to work and post your student visa.
Any further information regarding phases and regulations pertaining to both your birth country, please visit the Department of Home Affairs.
OK.
So I'm now going to pass you back to Angie.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Mikala. So with this portal now, please visit the portal and select apply. Now you can save your application and continue at a later stage. However, applications cannot be modified on our portal once they have been submitted. You will need to withdraw your application and reapply again.
If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail, please contact our nursing mid referee Garrett graduate inquiries.
Our website apologies e-mail address which is on the screen.
Next slide. Thanks, Elin.
Thank you. There is a QR code on your screen now that will take you to the nursing and midwifery graduates programme website. We can find more information.
We'll now move to the questions you've submitted. If your questions weight relates to general information that is easily found on the website, our team may respond to your questions in the chat to ensure we have enough time to answer all of the questions.
If you have any questions that you're not comfortable posting in the chat.
Please feel free to send an e-mail to the graduate enquiries e-mail address which is on the screen.
I might ask Amanda. First. Amanda, can you briefly outline the process for graduates who have been shortlisted for your hospital and health service? For example, can you talk a little bit about the interviews, notification allocation to intakes and how you communicate with the graduates?

Amanda Naumann  
Alright, thanks Angie. So each hospital and health service does their process slightly different.
Once we've received your applications from the graduate portal, our health service will review and shortlist your application against some criteria to ensure that we've got a good range of applicants to applying and then moving through the short listing. That process will take a couple of weeks to shortlist your application and once your application is either been shortlisted.
Or sent back to Optimo for your second preference, you'll be notified either way, so you'll either get a notification that you've been successfully shortlisted to the your first preference HHS, or you'll be notified that your application has gone to the second round.
To be considered for your second or third preference.
If you are shortlisted with the Sunshine Coast, for example, you'll be expected to be available for interview in September.
So our hospital and health service interviews during September and you'll need to be available for two rounds of interviews. One is medication safety and two is a face to face interview. We do have those face to face interviews via team. So it will. It can be electronic. So if you are away or if you're out of state, you do have the opportunity to interview over a team's platform. Once the interview process so that as you can appreciate it can take a couple of weeks to interview.
For the graduate positions, and then once we've interviewed, it takes another couple of weeks for us to ensure that we've got a fair and equitable process in selecting our graduates for graduate positions. So you'll be notified in a few weeks later. So the process from the the time the graduate portal closes to by the time that you may be offered a position is a good couple of months. And and that's fairly similar across each health service.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Wonderful. Thank you very much for that. Amanda. Michelle, if I could ask you, can you briefly outline the support and education opportunities graduates receive in your hospital and health service?

Michelle Foster  
Yeah. Thanks, Angie. I think you'd find that the graduate support programmes are fairly similar across Queensland Health.
But depth for asset Gold Coast Hospital and health service, your first two weeks is hospital orientation and nursing orientation and clinical skills days.
And where you get to meet and start to network with your other buddies that have just joined the transition year?
The cultural competence, so just your general orientation in those first two weeks.
Following that, you have your very you have unit specific orientation in our HHS you are allocated to that one area for the whole year. We don't rotate, so you undertake unit orientation in week three and week four and you have two weeks of supported shifts. So you're buddied up with a registered nurse or a clinical nurse for those two weeks. That's where we start to do some of your role specific requisites. You have supported learning.
What we call Csats, where it's an assessment in a supported environment against clinical skills and competencies.
During weeks three and weeks 4.
During weeks five and six, and basically all the way through for the next couple of months, it is ongoing assessments of your clinical skills, your mandatories, we commenced doing your performance appraisal.
In, you know, roughly three to four months, which will be completed at the end of your transition year. We also have two to three simulation days. Again, clinically based scenarios that all of our graduates.
Newly qualified nurses and midwives come together to undertake ward based simulation, again just to try and increase your confidence in the skills that you have learnt and acquired during your pre registration during your registration period.
And then towards the end, we spend some time with our graduates starting to prepare them for applying for positions in our HHS or in another HHS. So there is.
Support for CVS and interviews, et cetera for to, for you then to try and gain that knowledge and skills to secure positions post that transition year.
Thanks, Angie.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Information. Thanks very much, Michelle. The next question really is to both Michelle and Amanda.
Can you briefly outline how it's best to identify a clinical preference in your grad year? What is your advice for all the graduates when they think? I really don't know what I should do. What's your advice with that and what is also your advice on on how an unsuccessful applicant can manage.

Michelle Foster  
Mm hmm.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Meeting forward.

Michelle Foster  
It's a good question, Angie.

Amanda Naumann  
Good question. Do you want to go first, Michelle?

Michelle Foster  
Yeah. OK. Thanks, Samantha.
I think leave it open, I think have a broad range of of preferences. I wouldn't be specific again, just targeting trying to secure a position in the first instance because no matter where you work, you'll always gain knowledge and skills that can be easily transferable to your following year.
If you are unsuccessful, I think.
In your HHS or your clinical preference, I think it's an opportunity to continue on your pathway to secure a position.
I'm keeping a very much open mind about where you want to work in terms of location, as Amanda said, aged care, rural and remote. As Angie touched on at the beginning. So I think if you are unsuccessful in your first clinical preference and HHS or one or the other, just keep an open mind.
And you know, keep motivated to keep applying and don't restrict yourself to a location or to a preference. And then I do believe you'll become successful if you're not so narrow in your selection. Your selection of both HHS and clinical preference.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Amanda.

Michelle Foster  
Thanks, Angie.

Amanda Naumann  
Thanks, Michelle. Some really good advice in addition to what Michelle was saying, it also just consider what is what is the things that drew you to nursing and what are some of those things that you like about some of those clinical placements. So if you're really unsure, have a think about the things that you really loved about your clinical placement and what what they were and if you would like to put a suggestion down, pop that into your clinical preference, but that would be if you're really unsure, you can also seek some advice from some.
Supervisors or your buddies or clinical facilitators and and have a chat with them.
Nursing is a very large career and you can do so many things with nursing, so don't limit your options. I think like Michelle was saying, keep your options open because the world is your oyster. You've got so many opportunities out there to to move forward with.
Also, if you've been unsuccessful, maybe consider reaching out to the HHS to see if they provide any opportunities for feedback to see you know, what was the point of difference between somebody that was successful and somebody that you know wasn't successful?
In gaining a graduate position and also consider before you get to interviews, think about some of the questions that you might be asked and practise with some friends. I always say to people have a practise, have a practise interview with people that you feel comfortable with and the questions I know across most of the HHS they're all fairly similar, but we're not there to trick you. We're really there to understand who you are, what your fundamentals and your knowledge base is and how we can get the best out of you at interview. So you really need to put yourself.
In the shoes of how we don't know you. So to sell, sell yourself to us.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Wonderful. Thank you very much.
Another question which we've been been receiving quite a lot of is how or what is your recommendation and your advice to stop the nerves and anxiety in those first couple of weeks in that transition to clinical practise. Any wise words from you both?

Amanda Naumann  
That's a really great question and I know we all get nervous. I think that everybody has started their first day of something at some point. So just think about how you respond to stress. Are you somebody that talks really, really fast or do you get the palpitations, the sweaty armpits, the sweaty palms? How do you calm your nerves? Is it taking a few deep breaths? Remember, we've all started there. We've all had our day one. We all know what it's like. So just be kind, be kind to yourself.
Your expectation when you start as a new graduate is that as a new graduate, we know that you are coming in day one. Everybody knows that the grads are starting and and everyone's really excited to have you. So embrace the opportunity, take a few deep breaths and just look for your support people.

Michelle Foster  
Yeah, I'd probably say the same Angie at our HHS and I'm sure it's the same as Amanda. We have regular nqn huddles and we encourage reflective journaling. But like Amanda said, we've all been there, and I think it's about.
Acknowledging that and and the expectations, you know we the expectations that we have is a supportive environment to bring you along that journey and to and to take you through to that year.
But I think reaching out to your other NQ NS and your preceptors and also you know the you know encourage you to do reflective practise and journaling. And because it does help along the way.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Wonderful. Thank you. Just leading on from that too. What's your advice to our graduates if they're asked to do something which is outside of their scope or they haven't done before and they feel very uncomfortable, a lot are saying that they feel very nervous to speak up. What's your advice with that?

Michelle Foster  
Yeah, I think it's a good question.
We're definitely in Queensland, half have a programme called speaking up for safety.
That you'll be participating in in your first in the first couple of weeks into Queensland Health, but definitely if you've never done anything before. As Amanda said, we've all been there. It's about letting your body know for that day who's which registered nurse or clinical nurses assisting you for the day that you're nervous that you haven't done it and and also.
Talking to your patient and your family about that as well, you know, to ensure that they also know that's the first time you're doing it and it is a learning environment. It's a supportive environment. So those nerves will will quickly go away once you'll be able to articulate those things that you haven't done that before and you need extra support to be able to manage that situation.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Cool. Thank you. Very. Oh, sorry, Amanda.

Amanda Naumann  
Sorry, I was just going to add just one more thing. Just remember it like Michelle was saying, it's a learning opportunity. So ensure that you utilise it as a learning opportunity and be open and honest and transparent about where you're at with your skill set.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Fantastic. Thank you.
I I can see one of our colleagues from the Office of the Chief Nurses busily answering a lot of your questions in the chat so I can see that most of those questions are being addressed. So what I might do is just give a some answers to a few of our popular questions that we are asked in the office.
So one of the questions is it true that you're only considered with Agpa score of 5.7 or above? Absolutely no, very incorrect.
And no, there is not agpa cut off.
Does my university does not use agpa? Is it possible to leave this blank? No, please don't leave it blank in your application. There will be a drop down where you can select other. If you don't have agpa.
HHS values.
Should I go onto the website before my interview and learn the values? Absolutely yes. If you are particularly interested in going to a specific hospital and health service, I absolutely highly encourage you to go onto their website, read about their values, have a look at their plan, their operational plan or their strategic plan. It gives you an idea of where that hospital and health service is heading.
And you can also reference this in your interview, so absolutely recommend that you do that.
With your application, a number of questions come where can I update my application after I have submitted it? Unfortunately not. Once you've submitted your application, that is a hard close for that application that you've submitted. So what you will need to do if you need to edit that is to actually delete and remove that and start all over again. So before you do your final submission, please make sure that you've got everything uploaded that you need to.
And that you've answered all of the questions, there's a lot of fields to complete when you're doing that. I think there is about 170 fields that you will need to complete. So make sure that you've got time to do that and you have all of the information at hand before you start.
I.
With the cover letter, the panel might wish to comment here, but a lot of the questions are can I expand on my cover letter and go to perhaps two or three pages? I would recommend no. I would highly recommend that you try and stick to your one page. Our hospital and health services have hundreds and hundreds of applicants that they need to read through. So make your cover letter punchy. Look for that point of difference that.
Amanda spoke about earlier.
And please limit it to one page shell or Amanda. Have you got anything else to add there?

Amanda Naumann  
I would agree with you, Angie. Most health services, we've got hundreds of applications. If not, you know, really large volumes of applications and we want to ensure that everybody gets the same equal opportunity. So we do want to read them. I think you know, making the point of difference, what makes you different between another applicant. So if you're using what makes you different? Give us some examples of what makes you different.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Yeah.
Great advice.

Michelle Foster  
Angie, I think I would add to the cover letter. I'm always interested in reading the cover letter that talks about our patients and our families.
Because you know that's our core business and that's why we're so drawn to to health. So I always look for commentary or supporting conversations around delivering care and how important it is and to our families as well.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you, Michelle. Couldn't agree more. It is all about the patient and the family and of course, their patient and.
Graduate safety.
Well, I'm just double checking our chat line just to see if there are any questions that I can address now that our colleague hasn't got 2.
We'll just skip that a few more minutes to see if any further questions come through, but while we wait, any final words from you, Michelle or Amanda?

Michelle Foster  
You go, Amanda.

Amanda Naumann  
OK. I just would like to say good luck and congratulations on completing you know or near completing your studies. We look forward to working with you in our hospital and health services and we always love this time of the year in supporting our graduates. So good luck to you all.

Michelle Foster  
Mm hmm.
I would echo Amanda's words as well. We are very excited at this time of the year when our graduates start to applying and the energy that's in the HHS and also the registered nurses and the clinical nurses also look forward to the graduate cohort joining. Joining their inpatient units. It is a great opportunity.
For you to pick nursing as a career, it has enormous amount of opportunities in terms of career progression.
Opportunities in different streams. So again, like Amanda was saying congratulations and all the best with your applications and I'm be so excited to read them in a couple of weeks.

Angelina Zande-Wilkins  
Thank you very much.
Well, we've come to the end of the webinar time period now and I would like to thank very much the panel for joining us today. Michelle and Amanda. And I'd also like to thank you all for joining us. We look forward to receiving your applications and we wish you all the very best in your nursing career. Good luck. Good afternoon.

Gemma MacMillan
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining for joining us today for the Midwifery graduate webinar.
My name is Gemma McMillan, and thank you for taking the time to join us today. I'd like to start with an acknowledgement of country and I recognise the traditional owners of the lands on which I'm joining you from today. For me, it's in Brisbane and it's the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. I also recognise the traditional owners of the various lands that you join us from today.
And any First Nations people present in this webinar.
I pay my respects to all elders, past and present, and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures and connections to the lands and waters of QLD.
So I'm just going to do a bit of general housekeeping to get us started.
First thing to say is probably congratulations on either completing your degree or needing completion of your degree.
And thanks again for joining us today. Housekeeping wise, this webinar is recorded and the recording has started.
Is going to be available on the nursing and Midwifery graduate programme website in the coming weeks.
Your makes are muted, but don't worry if you have any questions, we'd be very happy to see them in the chat function.
We'll keep an eye on those throughout the session and either answer them as we go along or we may have to come back to you if we have to gather a little bit of additional information, but please don't worry, we won't leave you hanging for long.
Anyone in the chat can see the information you post, so please don't put anything personal on there. Today's webinar is part of a series designed to help you launch your career as a midwife in Queensland Health and today's webinar will provide an introduction to a midwifery career with Queensland Health and an opportunity for you to ask any questions you have about your impending career as a midwife.
Now we do have.
Very exciting panel for you today.
We will move on to some introductions.
So as I said, my name is Gemma McMillan. I'm the acting director of midwifery in the Office of the Chief Midwife, Officer in Clinical Excellence QLD. You can probably tell already from my accent that I am not an Australian by birth.
And I was actually did all of my training in Scotland and my graduate years in Ireland. I came to Australia in 2012.
I've worked in a variety of settings and models of care and came to work in Clinical Excellence QLD in October 2023. So not that long ago.
Now on the panel today, you can see from the screen we have the infamous and Anne Bousfield who will introduce herself shortly, and we've also got Kristi Izod who is almost equally as infamous. If you ask me for the far north.
We also have Angie Zande-Wilkins, who will introduce herself in a second and Mikala Power helping us today on with the webinar. So I might just hand over to Anne to give us a bit of a background on herself and her illustrious career. Thanks, Anne.

Anne Bousfield
Hi everyone then thanks for for turning up and to this webinar and we look forward to helping you launch in your mid midfree career. So my name's Anne, I'm a clinical midwife consultant for the Southwest Hospital Health service.
I look after maternity governance for all of our sites. We have 3 birthing hubs, Charleville, St. George and Roma and we also look after the imminent birth type needs of all of our.
Buying clinical community clinics and NPH SS Multipurpose health services. Sorry, they're small rural hospitals.
I've got a backben.
I grew up about 50 kilometres from where this photo's taken.
And but I've worked in Queensland, Victoria, I've done some overseas stints in Africa, India but yeah, come back to the southwest.
Of my home, so I've also worked in a lot of different models and.
I was working freestanding birth centres to tertiary services to rural remote services, which is where I intend to finish out my career.
But yeah, that's, that's about it, Gemma, I think. Yeah. Look forward to meeting anyone and answering any questions.

Gemma MacMillan
Thanks, Anne. You're being exceptionally modest as always.
So Anne will be a great wealth of knowledge for those of you joining us today, and perhaps those that watch the recording at a later date. So please feel free to pop any questions you might have, either directly for Ann or just generally in the chat and next to introduce herself is Kristi Izod from Townsville. Kristi, did you want to give everyone a bit of your background and your fabulous career?

Kristi Izod
Thank you so much, Gemma. Hi everyone. It's an absolute pleasure to be here today with you as you embark on your journeys into the wonderful profession of midwifery. As Gemma said, I'm Kristi Izod. I'm a clinical midwifery consultant up here in the Townsville Hospital and Health service.
Similar role to Anne's of that in the Southwest, we look after the regional facilities that feed into the tertiary facility here at Townsville.
include Ayr, Charters Towers, Ingham, Magnetic Island, Palm Island, Hughenden and Richmond, so it's a very vast geographical hospital and health service.
Little bit of a background for me. I am graduated nursing at from JCU in 2005 and continued on to do my postgraduate Diploma in Midwifery. I have a strong belief that nursing and midwifery pathways you continue to grow as a person and a professional.
And that prompts continual lifelong learning. So for that, for me, that is included, progressing into a Masters of Midwifery and Child health nursing qualifications. And I'm also currently studying for prescribing pharmacology for midwifery, which will enable advanced practise in indoor midwifery, just shows the scope of this amazing profession. I've got a strong passion and intimate knowledge of the regional and rural midwifery and lifestyle, having lived and worked in locations such as.
Nhulunbuyin the NT, Townsville and Darwin and absolutely happy to answer any questions you may have about working and residing in the north.

Gemma MacMillan
Thank you, Kristi.
Now, as I mentioned a few moments ago, we've also we're also joined today, but she might have her camera off at the moment by Angelina's Zande-Wilkins, who's the director of nursing and for workforce.
In the office of the Chief Nurse Officer and we also have Mikala Power who is the project support in the office of the Chief Nurse Officer and so.
Angie and Mikala have really pulled everything together for today.
We have the more intimate knowledge of how the graduate portal works. So with that, Mikala is going to give us a bit of an overview of the key dates and what the programme entails. Thanks, Mikala.

Mikala Power
Good afternoon, everyone and welcome. So the 2025 registered Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme Application Portal is now opened. The application portal will close on Sunday the 4th of August 2024 at 11:59 PM. Please make sure that you complete your application before this time as we will not be accepting any late submissions. Choosing a career as a midwife with Queensland health can be a life changing both for you and for the patients you care for. You have the option to start your career in midwifery, continuity of care models.
Or specialise in specific areas such as maternity, neonatal and family care, with practise consolidation and further experience you can pursue expanded practise roles or consult consult to see physicians, including clinical midwife, consultant, lactation consultant or endorsed midwife, the Queensland Health Nursing and Midwifery graduate programme supports graduate midwives to transition from academic study to clinical practise. Your work in a supportive and inclusive environment.
You can choose from many settings to work in Metropolitan City Centres, regional or rural and remote.
Queensland Health has 16 hospitals and health services or hhs's, and within each HHS there are a number of facilities. There are unique benefits associated with each region.
Sorry, I might just hand you over to Gemma.

Gemma MacMillan
Good. Thanks, Mikala. So you've got some maps on your screen there and you can obviously see the, I'm sure that none of your strangers to the vastness of Queensland and how different it can be driving one hour to the next.
So there's 16 hospital and health services across our state. Lots of diversity within those different hospital and health services.
So it's really about you considering what you think would be the type of environment or location that you would want to work in. And for some of you that might be that you've trained in a metropolitan area and you like that type of work. But maybe you're thinking you want to challenge yourself step outside of your comfort zone and perhaps go to a regional centre or rural remote and perhaps you'd even got your.
Sights set on some isolated and remote practise in the future.
You might want to give it some thought about which model of care you want to step into. Are you looking at so? So many of you will have aimed trained in a continuity model, or certainly been exposed to a continuity models throughout your midwifery training, and it might be that you want to continue that in your graduate years or your graduate year. So have a think about are you wanting to work in HHS that offer graduate positions and a midwifery group practise model?
Maybe you want to go into a rotational model so you get a little taster of everything.
Maybe you want to go somewhere where you get like a large volume of births.
It really depends on you as a person and what you've enjoyed from your training and what you want to get out of this next year.
There are different shift patterns and different facilities, so it might be that for family reasons or work life balance you would rather do sort of.
12 hour shifts. Or maybe you'd prefer the 8 hour shifts. And these are things that you can find out about from the various hospital in health services. You might want to work in a very specific area. Maybe post Natal care, as you know your jam and you just love it. Maybe you haven't had as much experience in certain areas and you want to go back and and get more experience as a grad, so just have a think about all of these things as you are considering what options are available to you for your graduate year.
Selecting your preferences of for work locations is a really important part of the application process.
Don't let it be all consuming, but definitely give it some thought. You can find more details about this on our website. We have also published a full list of hospital and health service facilities in the clinical categories that graduate positions may be placed in. This is available on on our website on the how to apply section.
And if you have any questions about what midwifery, clinical areas each HHS offers, you can e-mail directly to the HHS and enquire, you can find these contacts on the first page of our graduate programme website and hopefully that's very helpful to you. We normally find that the 8 the I keep saying HHS is because it's easier to say but the hospital and health services are very responsive to answering questions from graduates because they want you to have all the information so that you can make the most appropriate selection for you.
OK. So moving on, we might pass back to Mikala to talk to us about the next section of today's webinar.

Mikala Power
Great. Thanks, Gemma. So upon applying to the graduate programme Portal, you can save your application and continue at a later stage. However, applications cannot be modified on our portal. So once you have submitted it, you will need to withdrawal that application deleted and then resubmit it again.
Now I'm gonna talk a little bit about how to choose a hospital and health service or HHS.
For for more details regarding location preferences, please refer to the recorded prepared to succeed webinar that I have actually posted in today's chat and it will be out to be accessed on the website in the coming days on the screen. Now you can see the list of hospital and health services HHS locations for both group A&B. Group A has HHS that are in more rural or regional locations. If you're interested in working in one of these, HHS.
You only need to provide one preference. Historically, these hhss have not received a significant number of applications when compared to available positions, and often applicants are local and therefore this is the area that they wish to remain in. Group B contains HHS who received a significant number of application in comparison to Group A. These HHS are typically in Metropolitan city centres and surrounding areas.
It's important to note that HHS you preference first will consider your application first and foremost.
During the application process, the form will prompt you to preference your first HHS. You will then have the option to select from the drop down which work facilities you prefer to work at. If your first preference is A HHS and Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences. You can, however, provide at least three and up to six work facility preferences if you want to.
If your first preference is AHS and Group B, you must provide a second preference, and if your second preference is in Group A, you aren't required to provide any other preferences. If your first two HHS preferences are in fact in Group B, you must provide 3rd preference, but you can provide additional HHS preferences up to six in total. But Please note, if you select RRP, you'll have the option to select Central Cluster, Southern cluster, or both.
Specific details relating to available RRP or rural and remote pathways locations cannot be determined till after the application portal has closed.
If you are interested in rural and remote careers, Please ensure you are preferencing rural and remote HHS during your selection and not RRP or rural and memory pathway to read more about your rural and remote health facilities or working in rural remote areas. There will be a link provided in the chat.
All applicants must complete an online CV. There is no need to upload individually formatted CVS. This is to make sure we have your history captured in a standard format to complete this section you'll need to include information about your education, clinical placements and employment. This full list of documentation is available on the graduate programme website. You will be asked to upload a pdf formatted 1 cover letter. Your cover letter is essential to the application process.
It must be adjusted generically, for example, to who it main concern and pitch towards your first preference hospital and health service. If your application moves to later preferences, the HHS recruitment staff will consider the text accordingly. Please keep in mind the cover letter should be one a four page in length and outline your motivations for applying for the role. Your passion for the profession and what you will bring to the team. If you have a specific reasons for selecting a hospital and health service or facility, please tell us why you want to work in that location.
#2 is an academic transcript, whether that be official or unofficial. If you haven't haven't graduated yet, and we also need you to upload two completed referee reports, referee report template should be filled out by a clinical supervisor, meaning someone who has direct knowledge of a clinical practise and can speak about your clinical practise from experience. If you can only provide one clinical referee report, then a second referee report will survive. However, this reference will need to be completed by a line manager.
Or general manager who has worked with you and can provide information about your work ethic and teamwork. You can find the referee report template on the how to apply page on the graduate website.
Thank you. I'm now going to pass you over to Gemma.

Gemma MacMillan
Thanks Mikala
So just a reminder about submitting your applications, please make sure that you apply through the nursing and Midwifery graduate portal, not the general Graduate Portal. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail, please contact the e-mail address shown on the screen.
We'll help you troubleshoot that if you are shortlisted, you will be contacted. Contacted by the relevant hospital and health service to discuss the next steps.
Regarding the recruitment process.
And to arrange an interview if required for most hospital and health services interviews start anywhere from September onwards. So keep up to date by keeping an eye on the website. Ensure you regularly check your emails and your phone, as if anyone doesn't check their phone these days to see if you have been contacted for interview. Interviews are conducted at the discretion of the hospital and health service.
And may occur face to face or via telephone or even teams. You may receive invitations to more than one interview and that would be really exciting.
OK.
We're going to have a bit of a panel group answer session now, so we'll have a look at what's available online.
We'll do our best to answer as many questions as the time allows the QR code on the screen will take you to the nursing in midwifery graduate programme websites and you can find out even more information.
If you have any questions that you're really not comfortable posting in the chat, that's OK. Please feel free to send us an e-mail to the graduate enquiries e-mail address seen on your screen.
OK, so shall we have a look and see what we've got in the chat section there.
OK.
I'm just going to go back to the top to make sure I haven't messed anyone.
So as you can see in your chat, Elin has put some fabulous links in there with lots of additional information.
Mikala has added to that and we have got a question from Rosa which says HI team, I have a question. Let's say my first preference is ICU at rbwh. However, when reviewing my application the recruitment team realises that they are not.
Available in ICU at RBWH, but there are some at Caboolture hospital instead. Would I be offered a position in Caboolture in that case or not because it was not my first preferred hospital?
Collins put an answer to that there.
And he's basically said your preference first will consider your preference will consider your application before any other preference. Only if you're unsuccessful at shortlisting at your first preference will you move to other preferences.
OK.
We have got a question. Sorry I can't see the name because it's got stickers over the top.
Good afternoon. Panel, I was wondering for students graduating end of next year, are we allowed to open an account through the NGP portal now just for exploring the options and getting more prepared for next year? Is that a possibility Michaela?
I think you're on mute, lovely.

Mikala Power
Sorry, technical difficulties there. I'm just having a look at the question.
I'm not sure what NGP is is standing for, so how about we just come back to that question because I'm not entirely sure.

Gemma MacMillan
I think it's nursing graduate portal.

Mikala Power
OK, OK, OK. So the the actual portal. OK, just checking. So we do have the second intake that opens in February sort of towards the end of February, early March.
You can prepare, yet you can't actually apply for it until around that time, so it's up to you if you want to get your application, I guess prepared, but you won't be able to actually apply until that portal opens in February, March.

Gemma MacMillan
Lovely.

Mikala Power
Yeah, I hope that hope that answers the question.

Gemma MacMillan
Thanks Michaela.
It does. OK, I've got a great question now from Anna, which I think that Anne and Kristi will have lots of great advice about. So the question is, having only done placements in metropolitan areas, I'd like to know what you feel the major differences are between working as a midwife in a city versus rural and remote and any key areas of transition shock that grads might experience. How good is that question?
OK. Shall we go to Kristi first?

Kristi Izod
Yeah, great question, Anna. I guess first of all, there's no Mecca in Townsville, no, but seriously midwifery.
Some of the things that I find is that we have much smaller teams. So you build that closer, I guess, intimate relationship with that team. Sometimes there can be challenges in that. If there are personality clashes. So most shifts that you come on or if you're a caseload midwife, that team may be very small, so.
I guess there's pros and cons of that, like if you've got a great relationship then that's fantastic. But obviously if there is some personality clashes then that can make that that sort of thing difficult.
I guess travel to and from work. That's always a big thing, you know, here at the Townsville Hospital and certainly surrounds, you don't have to pay for parking.
Travelling to work is probably less time.
Less traffic, that sort of thing.
But As for working in facilities, I think you get some great benefits from working in a tertiary facility as you do out in, in, in your rural and remote. We as a tertiary facility and the only One North of Brisbane, we do see all.
We have a level level 6 Niku, so we see all babies or pregnancies, that sort of thing. We are the referral catchment for the nor so you do get a high level of exposure even though you are in original.
Community. So I think that's a really good benefit. And then if you wanted to step outside of that hustle and bustle of the tertiary facility, you do have your lower level hospitals that do see a lot of your low risk pregnancies and birthing anything to add in.

Anne Bousfield
Yeah, I did want to quickly add that. You know like in a lot of our rural remote maternity services, we run mg, PS, which and and all women are cared for via MGP. And that's the case for Southwest in Roma, Charles and Saint George.
We had a one of our graduates a number of years ago presented in Australian College of Midwives Forum and she was comparing her experiences in a rural MGP compared to her counterparts who are in the tertiary services doing a grad programme.
And this was about 8 months into her graduate year, and she was able to say that she'd done right from day one. She was doing an internetal place Natal intrapartum neonatal care from day one, and that her her friends in Brisbane, for example, hadn't even yet got into a birth sweet for a birth sweet rotation. So in these rural, remote services.
Where young midwives have to sort of as part of a team or a very small team, as Christy is saying, you know, we might talk about.
Say 3 midwives in Saint George 4IN Charleville, for example.
A part of a team that looks after any woman that comes into the into that service.
We care for low risk women and low to moderate risk women locally, but doing all their continuum of pregnancy care and we will be telehealthing and providing care in conjunction with the high level facilities in terms of Internet and post Natal care. And those women are transferred to those high level facilities.
But if if you want to be, you become a really well-rounded midwife with, you know, good problem solving skills. If you're working in a really small team and the other part of that question, which was around, let me just scroll up because I've just looking at the second part that was around the the shock that graduates can have coming, particularly if they've only ever worked in metropolitan areas, coming out to small services. Well, you know, all I can say is that.
It's not 60 years ago.
We still have modern transport methods. We still have Wi-Fi, but you would need to check with Intel K before you come because Vodafone won't work part West of Toowoomba, for example, so it's probably gonna be Telstra or sometimes at a pinch Optus. So you'd need to change a plan. So that's something that many young graduates get tied up with because they come out not knowing that they actually can't ring home on their on their cheaper version in the of of Vodafone, for example in the city.
But we are rural and remote communities are fantastic communities. If you get involved.
So you know, we could say that if you get, there's social in their social community activities, sports, a big thing, you know. So if we can get our young graduates into the local sporting teams, doing netball touch football.
Tennis Gun club, you know, play pigeon shooting, you know which is really big? Very popular. Going to the race.
It's going to rode aos etc. Something you might not have experienced before, but it's actually it's a really, really good social thing. So that's my advice is that rural remote communities are really social communities. If you get involved, you'll be taken in by the community and they will love you.

Gemma MacMillan
Couldn't agree more on thank you both for your answers. I'm going to move on quickly. 'cause. I'm going to try and get through as many as we can. The next question is from Shannon and it says hi everyone, I'm looking at applying for the RRP for the second year. Do I have a choice in which HHS I can work at?
And the answer is yes, you will have. So some hospital and health services will have.
You know a bit like Townsville, so it's a regional centre but it does have a main tertiary hospital and then the.
Smaller sites roundabout, which might be for example Level 3.
Facilities, so multi purpose health centres, as Anne said or.
You health facilities.
You you would have a choice of those attached to that bigger.
That bigger tertiary hospital?
And other rural and remote HHS just have the rural and remote sites. So you would have Southwest HHS, Central, QLD, Torrance and Cape Hospital and Health Service, Northwest Hospital and health service. They all have rural and remote facilities. So you definitely would have a choice.
And I hope I've answered that that would be helpful.
The next one is from Zoe and she says hi all I am from Interstate.
NT, our QLD residents given first preference for possessions. I actually don't know the answer to that.
Could Mikala or Angie or maybe even Colin answer that one?

Mikala Power
Yeah, I'm happy to answer that. No, we don't take preference for QLD graduates. Everyone it's it's an equal playing field. So even if you're from, yeah, Sydney, Melbourne, even from New Zealand.
And also from other country it's absolutely fine. We don't preference Queensland so yeah.
You're good to go.

Gemma MacMillan
Thanks, Michaela. And I see Colin has answered that further down in the chat.
Next question that we have is from Lee and it says it says we can't modify the application after submitted on the website. But after I submitted my application there is an option which shows how to modify and I did modify my application. Just want to make sure that's OK.

Mikala Power
So with that, I think it's Page 1, which is your personal details, you're able to modify that, but once it gets past there, you won't be able to if you've submitted it. So basically it's sort of minimal details at the beginning that you're able to modify, but yeah, if you're wanting to upload any more documents, say for example, you left out your cover letter, you won't be able to do that and nor will we be able to. So you will have to actually delete your application and resubmit it. I know it's a bit of a pain, but it's just the, it's just a process and how we do it. So yeah.

Gemma MacMillan
Thanks, Michaela. Now the next one, Colin's actually answered. But the question from Lara is around can two of my referees be clinical facilitators and Colin has responded saying yes they can, you must have at least one clinical preference and we will accept 2 instead of a line manager or supervisor. So that one's answered nicely there.
Now the next one's A3 parter. This is a big one, so this is from MC and it says good afternoon team. Thank you for arranging this session. Please bear with me as I have three questions. Could you please share some potential interview questions? Oh, that's a good one.
May I also know what kind of qualities you are particularly looking for amongst candidates and for international students? Should we enter the details of student visa as a temporary method on the application until we have a work visa? Granted? Thank you very much.
OK, so I may have a crack at the first one and then I'll pass to Kristi and Anne. So could you please share some potential interview questions? OK. I've sat in a lot of interview panels, so I'll give you some of my top ones. There will always be tellers about yourself question and it will be, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself and your suitability for this position. So that's your job. Consider that to be like an elevator pitch.
You know who you are, where you come from, your training, and why you're qualified for the role. Very straightforward. It also helps to settle your nerves, because it's really easy to talk about the things that you know very well.
Another potential interview question, certainly one that I like to ask.
Is usually around.
Working as part of a team, so it might be around multidisciplinary team relationships and culture. And how do you see yourself contributing to that?
It might be around how do you seek out help and support if you need to? Maybe in a clinical situation or it might be in a sort of a administrative scenario.
What else?
Another question would be probably for a graduate position will be a clinical question or two.
So things like you've walked on to the maternity ward and there's a buzzer going off and you decide to answer it. You haven't even put your bag down yet.
The woman tells you that she's just passed a large claw into the toilet and she's 10 hours post partum can you tell us about how you're going to manage that situation? So that relies on you just sort of drawing from that clinical experience and your studies and what you know.
I'll leave the rest for Krsiti and Anne, because I'm sure they're, you know, champion to tell you some other ones for the second part of that question, kind of qualities we're looking for amongst candidates.
I think obviously your clinical capabilities and the fact that you've completed your course, just one part of the puzzle.
Really looking for someone who wants to invest their graduate year in the hospital and health service and for what reason?
People who are proactive inquisitive.
Keen to learn.
Maybe even take on little mini projects. As a graduate, I often find that graduate midwives come with like a really fresh perspective, and they usually have a head full of ideas, which is probably from three or four years of observing. And you know, having your own thoughts and opinions about how things could be done.
So those would be the type of qualities that I would be looking for. Anne, would you like to perhaps give some suggestions of questions that you might use and maybe some qualities that you would be looking for?

Anne Bousfield
You've kind of covered most of them, Gemma, but I think one of the things that that we love, particularly in rural mode areas is that you really want to be there. You know, we've actually had had grads that haven't been able to get a job in Brisbane who you know, they don't want to be there. So. So just in terms of just being really keen and wanting to be involved and you know and and as you say Gemma, want to really invest in the service.
We can generally pick out pretty quickly those that who'll run.
Quickly, if I can get a job back in the city so.
Yeah, if if if I suppose. Well, my advice is if you want to give us a go, we'll give back twice, you know, twice as much. So we just love people who want to want to be part of our community and look after our community.

Gemma MacMillan
About you, Kristi, anything additional?

Kristi Izod
Yeah, I was gonna say I'm very similar to Anne. You know, even if you may not have got your first preference, I guess there's nothing worse than coming into an interview and going, oh, I really wanted Brisbane. And so this was my second preference. And this is where I'll end up. You know, even if you're thinking that, don't say that.
Have a Google search of the Queensland Government websites. Have a look at the areas that you're applying for. Have a look at the services, core values and and and the some of the.
There where they align.
Their care.
And there's often for interview questions. There's often a conflict question. So just how you manage conflict, how you would escalate that.
Given an example of when you were involved in conflict and and how you how you manage to work through that.

Gemma MacMillan
Lovely. Thank you. Now I've just had the five minute warning, so I'm going to go a bit quicker now. The last part of M CS question was around for international students should be entered the details of a student visa. Yes, please do. That would be very helpful.
Zoe have completed placements in rural and remote hospitals and Aboriginal health clinics where we do not have a clinical facilitator, only the manager and midwives, who would be used as a reference in this case.
And I think that we've had some answer to that. Yes, we have. So you could ask the midway for a reference, a clinical reference and then the manager could be a second referee.
Sequan has also said thank you so much for your answer from my previous question. I was also just wondering may I know the reasons why we are encouraged to preference the specific HHS instead of the RRP? If we are interested in working in a rural and remote career. Thank you so much. So Colin has just answered there that the RRP is a rotational programme intended to support rural and remote hospital health services that cannot recruit enough graduates from direct preferences.
Like a little additional.
And.
It's not intended as a pathway into rural and remote nursing career.
What else could I answer to that? There was another one. Lara, do you recommend grad midwives to get into honours during your grad year?
I think it really depends on you and you know how.
How full your cup is taken on a, you know, finishing study, getting yourself organised to step into the workforce as a registered midwife.
Whether or not you feel that something you could take on, I think it's a real individual choice and certainly some people see the benefit in doing it straight away and others would prefer to have a couple of years experience and then maybe do it after that.
Or not necessarily, your honours, but maybe your post graduate or aim other certificates that you were looking at completing. Mikala, did you have something to add to that one?

Mikala Power
I'm just being a little bit aware of time, so I think we probably can only take one more question. Sorry, Gemma. And then we might have to wrap up, but anything else we're happy to take any inquiries via e-mail on that's on the screen right now. So but yeah, just be need to be aware of time. Thanks, Gemma.

Gemma MacMillan
OK, we're gonna do this one last one, which is from Hitomi and she says I would like to work in a hospital with a higher rate of low risk pregnancies. Is there any way to see the spontaneous vaginal birth rate, home birth rate in each hospital in Queensland? So we might just flick over to Kristi and Ann to ask for that information.

Kristi Izod
Certainly, the Bureau of Statistics, you can jump on board with that. There is an organisation called Women's Healthcare Australasia that do publish reports on hospitals. I would need to check though and Ann, you may answer this whether that is publicly shared. I'm I'm not sure, but there are certainly reports done with all of that information, induction of labour rights, complications, all of that. But I would have to see if it's publicly shared.

Anne Bousfield
I don't believe it is publicly shared, I because I mean, we can't even tell who the others who are who the other services across Australia are being benchmarked against.
There is a there is a. It's awful, I've forgotten it. It's a there's a website that's a Queensland Health website, which actually puts your data on. Inform my healthcare. Oh, thank goodness. It came to me. Inform my healthcare.

Gemma MacMillan
And for my care cap.

Anne Bousfield
Which you can find that information out on. The only problem with that is for really small hospitals because you haven't got a lot of.
It comes up as a blank, so that's about the only thing, but you can be pretty assured that the small rural remote hospitals have a much higher rate of vaginal birthing than the big hospitals.

Gemma MacMillan
They certainly do. And the other thing is that to get that level of information, if you were engaging with your.
HHS preference and you were maybe speaking to one of the management team there or perhaps the CMC or the educator. That is a question that you could ask, you could just say you know this is something that I'm really interested to see more of. And could you tell me what your normal vaginal birth rate is versus your caesarean rate and what are your rates of induction and different things like that?
That also contributes to you looking like a really engaged prospective graduate. So there you go. Two birds, one stone. OK, we'll finish there. I think we managed to get through all the questions either by answering in the chat or answering them live. But if anything comes to your mind after we're finished today, as Michaela has said, please e-mail it through to us. We would be delighted to either answer it for you or point you in the right direction. And thank you all very much again for joining us today.
We hope that it's been helpful.
And best of luck in your pursuit for a graduate position.

Anne Bousfield
Thank.

Kristi Izod
And good luck.