The Victorian government's commitment to providing free training to nursing and midwifery students is a "nice" gesture but will be unlikely to dramatically increase overall student numbers, university academics say.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday 10,000 nursing and midwifery students will be able to complete their undergraduate studies for free in the next two years.
Thousands more scholarships will be available for postgraduate studies in specialty areas of need such as intensive care, cancer care, and paediatrics.
Mr Andrews claimed the funding package would train and hire more nurses "than ever before", but training experts say it is not that simple, with many other barriers holding back student number growth.
Australian Catholic University School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine head Professor Elisabeth Jacob said courses were already running at full capacity and it could be difficult to increase significantly.
Placement dilemma
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) is responsible for regulating the number of students each university can accept each year.
ANMAC director of accreditation services Margaret Gatling said universities must have sufficient qualified teachers, clinical labs, and 800 placement hours available for each student.
Dr Gatling said limited placement options would restrict the number of students universities could take, particularly given placement backlogs caused by COVID-19.
"There is competition for placements," she said.
"All the other health professionals that have clinical practice attached to their studies, the paramedics, the medical students, they are all needing placements as well and are fighting for the same spots."
Professor Jacob said student placements in both metropolitan and regional hospitals were already at capacity.
ACU takes in 115 nursing students each year at its Ballarat campus and is going through the accreditation process to increase that number to 150 next year.
Professor Jacob said she could take another 100 students in Ballarat if the placements were available.
"We would have to go back to our health partners and see what extra placements they would be able to offer us," she said.
Grampians Health chief nursing midwifery officer Leanne Shea said in a statement the health service offered 30,000 clinical placement days in 2021 and planned to expand the student program.
'Creative' thinking encouraged
Dr Gatling said universities could look to offer more placements in non-hospital settings, including aged care, acute care, and mental health care.
"What we say is think very creatively about where quality placements can be achieved," she said.
"It is down to the education providers now — if they want to increase their numbers — to make sure they have resources."
Under the new government package, all new domestic students enrolling in 2023 and 2024 will receive up to $16,500 to cover course costs if they work in Victorian public health services for two years.
This has drawn criticism from the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association, which says there is a risk it will reduce the number of nurses moving into aged care and general practice.
Chief executive Ken Griffin said other non-government-funded primary health care settings could be at risk, including home care, schools, correctional care, Aboriginal, and refugee health services.
Scholarships will also be available for enrolled nurses to become registered nurses as part of the Victorian government funding package.
More than 9,400 new registered nurses will be required by 2025 across Victoria, according to Victorian Skills Authority data released this month.
