APNA Online Learning
Learning on the go with APNA online learning
Welcome to APNA's Clinical Placement Programs.
APNA offers student nurses like you the opportunity to experience what it's like to work as a nurse in primary health care and aged care.
We want to help you make an informed choice when deciding what path your career will take after graduation.
Nursing is more than caring for people in acute settings. Just as important is the role of primary health care nurses. They work in the community to provide health and wellbeing services, keeping Australians out of hospital unless they really need to be there.
Primary care nurses work in a wide range of settings, including general practice, aged care, schools, community health centres, correctional facilities and more. You could work as a nurse in a busy inner-city clinic or a remote community. Either way, you’d be playing an essential role in providing access to health care that many Australians might not otherwise have.
If you join the increasing number of nurses choosing to work in primary health care after graduating, you will enjoy an exciting and rewarding career with flexible hours, opportunities to work to your full skill set, and a supportive network of peers.
Primary health care allows nurses to make a real difference in people's lives, and our Clinical Placement Programs will show you why you should choose to work in this exciting sector.
To learn more about this exciting sector, watch our short video about primary health care.
APNA placements are high-quality, with clear learning objectives, the support of an experienced nurse supervisor (primary health care) or facilitator (aged care), and plenty of opportunities to put what you have learned in the classroom into practice.
Placements run in various settings across Australia throughout the year and typically last 2-4 weeks.
We work with a range of education providers to place nursing students in these exciting placements. Unfortunately, we do not work with individual student nurses at this time. If your provider is not currently offering places through APNA, and you wish to undertake a placement, you can direct them to the APNA Clinical Placement Program webpage and encourage them to contact us.
We love hearing from our student nurses who have completed placements with APNA.
It would be really beneficial for every student to have at least one placement in a primary healthcare setting, as it is very different to the hospital setting. It also made me more aware of the opportunities for a career once my studies have finished, as I would not have had any experience in the primary health care setting if it weren't for this makeup placement.
I was able to practice clinical skills, was more hands-on and provided me with more learning opportunities than hospital placements.
I really enjoyed getting to see how a medical centre was run from a nursing perspective, admin perspective and doctor perspective. The entire team there were wonderful to learn from and so incredibly welcoming.
Our Aged Care Knowledge Hub provides resources, tools and support for nursing students taking the first steps towards a fulfilling career in aged care as well as ongoing research, evidence, and knowledge to all healthcare workers in this sector.
Contact the APNA Clinical Placement Programs team, call 03 9322 9500 or email placements@apna.asn.au