Open borders help overseas nursing students return Southern Cross University is welcoming international students back on campus, with 36 international nurses now well advanced in their training to work as Registered Nurses in Australia. More good news is SCU welcoming the first full international cohort back to its Gold Coast, Lismore and Coffs Harbour campuses for the main 2022 intake. The Australian border opened to international student visa holders in December 2021, with postgraduate nursing students among the first to arrive to study the Graduate Certificate in Australian Nursing at SCU’s Gold Coast campus. Once these international health professionals complete their intensive classes, followed by a six-weeks practical placement at The Tweed Hospital, they are professionally equipped to bolster Australia’s healthcare system in critical care hospital settings. Student Lea Pamela Salvador said she and her classmates were thrilled to be among the first new international students back in the country, living on the Gold Coast and learning in state-of-the-art labs overlooking the beach and hinterland. She has 10 years’ experience as a nurse, the past five as a manager for the critical care unit at a 500-bed infectious disease hospital in the Philippines. ‘I was supposed to come into this Australian Nursing program two years ago but now the dream is finally happening and I will soon be qualified to work in Australia as a Registered Nurse,’ Ms Salvador said. ‘And with this week’s government announcement about tourists returning to Australia I am looking forward to my family being able to come and visit.’ Her classmate Ross Unlagada also booked his tickets to Australia as soon as the border announcement was made. ‘In the Philippines I was working in an adult Intensive Care Unit at the country’s biggest tertiary government hospital. The past two years working as a COVID-19 ICU nurse was very physically and mentally taxing, but I think it has prepared me well to work here in Australia,’ he said. ‘Southern Cross University has been so helpful and supportive, and I’m enjoying getting to know the other nurses who have arrived from around the world, from India, Samoa, the Philippines.’
Justy Loudel Botante previously worked as a dialysis nurse at Western Visayas Medical Center, a 400-bed, tertiary and service-oriented government hospital in the Philippines.
demand when borders were closed, we are seeing international applications build again in 2022, with acceptances for the second half of the year already up 20 per cent on last year’s enrolment,” she said.
‘I want to work wherever I can be a help to the Australian healthcare workforce, especially during this pandemic,’ Ms Botante said.
‘We are also pleased with the diversity of nationalities represented in our student group, with strong growth in student enrolments from the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia and Japan, joining our students from China, India and Nepal.’
Christine Martin, SCU’s Manager International Student Mobility and Recruitment, said Southern Cross University is thrilled to welcome back commencing international students. ‘We have greatly missed their input to our University and local community over the last 18 months, but we are proud of the resilience these students have shown over this challenging period,’ she said. Ms Martin said programs in the Faculty of Health and Faculty of Education were most popular, with a 40 to 50 per cent increase in international student enrolments in health and education across the last 12 months. ‘While some traditional programs experienced a decrease in international
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