Masters in Medical Service in Australia

Thrive in complex health environments. The Master of Nursing builds on your previous undergraduate education, preparing you for work in local, national and international healthcare settings. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to work with other health professionals to provide the highest quality person-centred care.

Throughout this two-year degree, you will learn from leading experts through hands-on learning as you develop a strong theoretical understanding of health and illness, and how care is provided and experienced.

As part of your degree, you will complete over 800 clinical placement hours in varied settings including emergency departments, intensive care units, paediatric units, oncology units, mental health facilities and community health centres.

Beyond clinical care, you will also study human biology, pharmacology, research and evidence-based practice, social contexts of health and illness, illness experiences, healthcare systems, leadership in healthcare and other professional topics, including legal and ethical issues in healthcare.

This course, offered by Nursing and Midwifery, prepares nurses and midwives for leadership roles in specialist practice, management, education, disaster management and leadership, trauma nursing and advanced midwifery. You will develop advanced practice knowledge and leadership in specialist practice including skills to plan, implement, coordinate and evaluate health care, as well as the ability to formulate policy for a diverse and multicultural society. Graduates are employed in a wide range of general and specialist clinical, educational and healthcare environments in senior positions and contribute to the health of individuals, families and communities, in addition to the development of the profession.

Open new doors in your nursing career.

Due to the global effects of population growth and the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people living with chronic conditions is on the rise. As a result, the demand for nurses in all specialised fields is expected to rapidly increase.*

La Trobe's Master of Nursing lets you match your study to your career aspirations. Enhance your knowledge and skills in specialist areas by choosing from a range of clinical and non-clinical subjects.

If you're a registered nurse working in Australia, you'll have access to a wide variety of specialisations. Enjoy a flexible, blended learning approach that combines face-to-face workshops with online study that you can fit around your work commitments and access from anywhere. For a clinical specialisation you will also undertake advanced clinical training in your own hospital's relevant work setting.

If you're looking to pursue a career as nursing educator, academic or manager, you'll have access to our online non-clinical specialisations. Develop advanced knowledge of nursing research along with the critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills you need to thrive as a nursing researcher, educator or leader.

You'll graduate ready to effectively plan, implement and evaluate practice in your specialised context, make high-level independent judgements, and function effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary team.

Operating out of QUT Health Clinics at the Kelvin Grove campus, the Psychology and Counselling Clinic provides professional psychology, family therapy, and counselling services for the community.

Counsellors provide support to people of all ages who are experiencing challenges in their lives. Whether you are new to the profession or seeking to expand your current knowledge and skills, UNE’s Master of Counselling offers an integrative approach, with professional training and supervision that equips you with advanced knowledge and skills to enable you to work collaboratively with your clients, and create environments that facilitate personal insight, change and growth.

Our course is underpinned and informed by a Humanistic and Existential philosophical framework that deals with questions of meaning and freedom, grapples with what it means to be human, and emphasises the value of individual and collective agency.

Develop your skills in counselling, supervision and health and social research. Learn about the theories and concepts that underpin common research approaches to ensure that you have the right foundation to identify and select appropriate methods to answer particular research questions. You will also gain an in depth understanding of the processes that guide research design and practice. The course provides a pathway to UNE's Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), if you are interested in pursuing further research.

What makes our course different?

At UNE, we have been preparing students for a rich career in counselling for over 25 years. Our long established, specialist master’s course is taught by passionate and experienced academics and practitioners, ensuring that you gain the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for contemporary, interdisciplinary, person-centred practice in the rapidly changing world of health and social care. With a focus on humanistic counselling approaches that require a commitment on the part of the counsellor to connect with others and explore what happens when those connections are made, you might find the learning experience of this course different to what you have experienced in the past.

Counsellor training requires independent, self-directed and reflexive learning. Our aim in this course is to provide you with the same growth-promoting learning environment that you will create for your clients. We support your development as a skilled professional, ready to respond to the challenges you may face in practice with emotional and psychological agility. Engagement with your teachers and peers throughout will assist to deepen your understanding of the humanistic approach to counselling, fostering genuineness, acceptance, caring, compassion and empathy. This course gives you opportunities to:

• Equip yourself with professional training in a range of specialisations. Core units of the course include supervision theory and practice, and focus on giving you the skills and knowledge required to support people of all ages dealing with a range of issues including life transitions and relationships, addiction, abuse, mental health, and many other areas of health and wellbeing.
• Choose your own pathway, with options for the Generalist Counselling Pathway, the Mental Health Practice Pathway or the Counselling Placement Pathway which includes 40 hours of face-to-face counselling, 10 hours of clinical supervision and 150 hours of agency-based activities.
• Gain real research experience — UNE’s Master of Counselling includes a capstone research project, undertaken in your last trimester of study, where you choose a specialised area of counselling to investigate independently. With a collaborative approach and excellent support from your supervisor, you will produce a piece of professional research and demonstrate your skills in problem solving, critical thinking and analysis. If you wish, this can also be a pathway to further higher degree research in the School of Health.
• Study flexibly — at UNE, our counselling students come from a wide range of backgrounds, and we know that you need to balance study with family, work and other commitments. Flexibility is the key to our online learning programs, and we offer options that allow you to study units across UNE's trimesters allowing you to tailor your program of study to your individual needs.

By choosing UNE, you are choosing an industry leader in the provision of online lifelong learning. Year after year, students award UNE the maximum 5-star ratings for Overall Experience and Student Support in The Good Universities Guide. When you choose UNE, you are setting yourself on a pathway to a rewarding future.