A word from the Dean of Nursing as we gather to celebrate International Nurses Day 2025

The 2025 theme, Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for nurses strengthens economies, highlights that investing in the nursing workforce is essential to enhancing the health of our communities.

Our school continues to advance our key priorities of research-informed nursing education, and strengthened postgraduate pathways, as we know that nursing is a journey of life-long learning. The school is committed to support initiatives that: grow leadership capability, expand clinical placement capacity, to safely broaden scope of practice and to be First Choice for First Nations students. 

As we gather to celebrate International Nurses Day, I want to take a moment to honour the incredible contributions of nursing students. You are the future of healthcare and will be the backbone of tomorrow's healthcare system. You bring a fresh perspective, unbridled enthusiasm, and a relentless drive to make a difference in the lives of others. You still have a journey of rigorous study and hands-on practice ahead, but it is a great journey to be on.

All nurses and midwives learn not only the technical skills required for their profession but also the profound attributes of empathy, compassion, and resilience, and they often learn these attributes from modelling their nursing educators and academics. Through nursing education, you learn to face challenges head-on, through perseverance, until you become the healers, advocates, researchers and leaders of the future.

To celebrate International Nurses Day 2025, let us support nursing students as they navigate their educational journeys to prepare them to step into their roles as vital members of the healthcare community. Their success is our academic nursing teacher’s success, and their commitment to caring for others, benefits us all. Thank you to nursing teachers and researchers and hooray for nursing students!

Thank you.

Vicki Cope

Dean of Nursing