In 2024, we are celebrating 50 years of nursing education at La Trobe University.
Professor Lisa McKenna, Dean of La Trobe's School of Nursing and Midwifery, said it was an honour to lead the School through this significant milestone.
“As one of the oldest tertiary nursing schools in Australia, we have a proud history of educating passionate and dedicated nurses.”
Professor McKenna said nursing education had been through extraordinary change in the last 50 years.
“From the apprentice-based hospital system to the transfer of nursing education to the higher education sector, we have seen significant change.”
“Some of the key milestones include the introduction of the first nursing pre-registration diploma program in Australia in 1974, followed by the two-year post-registration undergraduate degree in nursing in 1980.”
“In 1990, we launched our first Honours program and had our first cohort of PhD candidates, heralding a new age of nursing research at La Trobe.”
In other highlights, La Trobe introduced Australia’s first four-year undergraduate nursing degree in 2000, a new double degree in Nursing and Midwifery in 2001, and a Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Psychological Science double degree in 2019.
Professor Jane Mills, Dean of the La Trobe Rural Health School, said the 50th anniversary will also be celebrated enthusiastically on regional campuses.
According to Professor Mills, the growth in research output and the new investment in clinical simulation laboratories – on all our regional campuses – shows how committed La Trobe is to nursing education in the regions.
“It is an honour to help prepare the next generation of rural and regional nurses, and to know that we are building an incredible body of evidence to guide our education and, ultimately, improve people’s health and wellbeing,” she said.
