Teaming up: ERH RUSONs Rebecca Crawford and Tazarni Clarke.
Earn while they learn was the Victorian Government’s theory behind the development of the Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing (RUSON) model.
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By early 2020 after the arrival of COVID, the model had become an accepted part of Victoria’s healthcare system, and a welcome addition to the state’s pandemic response.
Students must be in their second or third year of undergraduate nursing or midwifery studies, and be registered with AHPRA as a student nurse or midwife, to be eligible to become a RUSON.
Echuca Regional Health (ERH) has five RUSONs who have started their employment with the hospital.
Some of these students have participated in the work experience and Allied Health programs as a pathway throughout their schooling journey and hence, now gained employment in the RUSON model.
This partnership fosters ERH’s values, ensuring a positive culture in the workforce through a sense of community and belonging.
The advantages of becoming a RUSON and being employed with an organisation is to develop a working relationship, which contributes to an undergraduate’s work readiness in a flexible model and paid employment, while studying.
Gaining skills: ERH's Jayde Evans and Georgia Maiden.
The employment model offers students invaluable real-world experience in their chosen career while they study, easing the eventual shock of transition to practice once they graduate.
The program involves the RUSON working under the supervision of a registered nurse/midwife, and their scope of practice is clearly defined: the activities they can perform differ from those performed when students are on clinical placement as part of their Bachelor of Nursing or Midwifery studies.
As part of a wider, systemic approach to building and retaining the workforce it has a ripple effect of providing employment to undergraduate nursing students, while gaining invaluable experience and insight into the work life of a nurse by working alongside more experienced nurses in a basic, support-driven role.
The program is a win-win for students, health services and patients.
Students are employed in a role that complements their studies and, in turn, supports the provision of more timely care while also relieving workload pressure for the nursing team.
Feedback suggests the model is helping to build and maintain a local workforce, with students more likely to stay in the region where they have an existing relationship with a healthcare service.
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