QUT Metro North Nursing and Midwifery Academy

A partnership between Metro North Health and QUT is providing an integrated approach to education, recruitment and retention, development and support for nurses and midwives throughout their careers, including research pathways. 

The QUT Metro North Nursing and Midwifery Academy builds on the existing partnership between QUT School of Nursing and Metro North Health to promote excellence in care for patients and provide professional support and opportunities for our nurses and midwives.  

The academy is focusing on establishing a culture of belonging, meaning and mastery of skills for nurses and midwives at all stages of their professional journey, enhancing the professions.   

The academy’s four focus areas are:  

• professional and clinical excellence,  
• entry to practice,  
• post graduate teaching and learning, and professional education, and  
• research and implementation.   

Academy Director of Nursing and Midwifery Gillian Nasato said at its core, the academy’s philosophy must focus on nurses and midwives supporting nurses and midwives.   

“We are striving to build a culture and embed practices to enhance continuing education, research, teaching and leadership to transform healthcare through excellence and innovation,” Gillian said.  

“We are lifting a

nd enhancing people’s desire and passion to embark on evidence-based practice and research, and facilitating and nurturing nursing and midwifery research opportunities.   

“The Metro North Nursing and Midwifery Research Community of Practice (CoP) has been established as a forum for collaboration fostering robust discussion to enhance connectivity and partnership opportunities for nursing and midwifery researchers from across all Metro North sites including our colleagues in conjoint and honorary positions or those based on the Metro North campuses.”  

The CoP affords participants the opportunity to gather and share their individual research agendas, programs of work, areas of expertise with a view to discussing challenges and to share and develop additional opportunities which will benefit both the nursing and midwifery professions as well as the communities we support.  

“We’re looking at how we grow and facilitate opportunities for further research,” Gillian said.   

The academy’s research sphere focuses on growing collaborating research initiatives and the implementation of the research outcomes to advance nursing and midwifery practice and build research capacity and capability.   

Some of the ways it aims to achieve this include fostering research collaborations which address health service priorities, promoting translation into practice, encouraging wide research collaborations, and supporting enrolment in higher research degree studies.   

Through the academy, Gillian and a QUT partner are also attending every new graduate orientation session at two sites in Metro North as a trial aimed at providing additional support, mentoring and guidance to nurses and midwives as they embark on their new careers.   

Drawing on her own experiences of more than 30 years in the profession, Gillian also attended QUT’s 2024 orientation week to engage with our student nurses as they begin their education journey.    

“Working to promote nursing and midwifery as a profession, working to promote opportunities to then work across Metro North Health, and working to retain our new and current workforce are focuses for 2024 and beyond,” Gillian said.   

“Engaging the hearts and minds of our professions to truly focus on the educated, skilled, and caring clinician at the bedside will bring us back to our true north.   

“The love of caring and serving others, team vitality and true professional and clinical excellence.”