Sixty ready-to-launch graduate nurses are celebrating the completion of their QEII Graduate Program this month, after an invigorating year of learning alongside QEII’s best.
Family, friends, colleagues and nursing leadership gathered to celebrate the milestone with the cohort in an intimate ceremony hosted by the Graduate Support Team on 11 February.
Program Coordinator and Nurse Educator Renee Langridge says the milestone is an opportunity for graduates to pause and reflect on how far they have come over the past 12 months before they fly the proverbial nest.
“Today is about reward and recognition for the hard work and effort the graduates have put in over the last twelve months,” she said.
“While the Graduate Program is not a formal qualification, we like to celebrate this milestone as the graduate year is generally considered the steepest learning curve for nurses as they learn how to apply their university knowledge in the real world. They are frequently presented with new challenges where they make decisions on patient care without the benefit of experience, but thankfully they also have the invaluable support of their colleagues – the fabulous nurses at QEII. The ceremony is about acknowledging these real-world challenges, and to make sure we stop and pause to celebrate the mountain they have climbed over the last twelve months.”
With the hospital’s most experienced nurses and mentors at their side, the cohort successfully supported specialties across the hospital’s wards from ED to Endoscopy, while also contributing to extracurricular projects.
54 of the graduates participated in the annual Insight Project, where they lent their creative ideas to building care-enhancing initiatives.
“The Insight Project was a real highlight this year. The graduates participated individually and in groups, and a lot of really good ideas came out of that, so I’m really looking forward to supporting them to follow through with those ideas in the coming year and hopefully bring some improvements to the organisation,” explained Renee.
“We’re keen to show our grads that they don’t have to wait 20 years to be nurse leaders. They can be leaders and make positive change now. It was fantastic to see the creativity and commitment to completing those quality initiatives through the Insight Program.”
It's mixed emotions for Renee and the team as they farewell the 2024 cohort and welcome a new wave of graduates to the 2025 program.
“It is sad to see them go on, but with the majority staying on at QEII, it’s still good to see them around and have them help mentor the next group of grads. We do a lot of training around that and encourage our new grads to seek them out, because they’ve just been through it.”
Congratulations on this milestone and all the best with the next stage of your careers, grads!