ACN Transition to Practice Program
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The ACN Transition to Practice Program prepares newly qualified Registered and Enrolled Nurses for a confident entry into the workforce.

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Is this program right for me?

This program is designed for newly qualified Registered and Enrolled Nurses.

  • If you are not practicing, the program will provide you with a framework and evidence of active continuous learning and development to reassure future employers of underpinning knowledge and sound preparation for practice.
  • If you are practising clinically, but not engaged in formal transition programs, the program will complement and support your practice and assessment of practical application can be completed in your workplace.
  • If you are employed in a graduate program, the program will complement your learning and performance.

Program outline

This unit aims to ensure you understand your responsibilities and registration requirements and are familiar with the codes and standards that govern and regulate your practice. Completing this unit will assist you to understand your scope of practice, and role as a novice practitioner within the broader team across all settings. Throughout the unit you will be asked to write in your reflective blog that can be printed off at the end.

  • Registration standards, codes and obligations
  • Practice standards
  • NMBA and AHPRA requirements, mandatory reporting
  • Regulation of N&M – Roles and responsibilities
  • Expectations and duty of care, Good Samaritan events

This unit aims to ensure you understand evidence-based practice and are familiar with the National Standards that outline how you perform and deliver care within the scope of your practice. Completing this unit will assist you to understand the importance of clinical governance in maintaining safe and effective healthcare, the National Standards framework, policies and guidelines and the accreditation requirements as a novice nurse.

  • Safety and Quality in healthcare
  • NSQHS standards and requirements
  • Aged Care Standards
  • Evidence based practice
  • Policies and guidelines – local/national
  • Accreditation processes

This unit aims to ensure you are finding a safe and effective balance as you are developing in your new role and workplace, whether that it is in nursing, or if a nursing role is still to come.

Committed to caring for others, nurses often forget to take care of themselves. However, think of the oxygen analogy on the plane: you must take your own oxygen before you can help the struggling child beside you. Therefore, irrespective of the pressures you experience as part of your nursing role, don’t be tempted to neglect your own health and wellbeing.

  • Maintaining own health and wellbeing
  • Work life balance strategies
  • Mental health support
  • Responding to challenging scenarios/OVA/grief
  • Dealing with death and dying

This unit aims to ensure you are confident with medication administration and understand the requirements for safe practice when administering medication. We acknowledge that you will have been deemed competent during your undergraduate program, so this unit provides a refresher to ensure your knowledge is up to date. The unit covers the broad principles to assist you in your workplace which will have its own policy and guidelines that you must adhere to.

  • Legislative requirements and regulations
  • Ensuring safe practice
  • Maintaining knowledge
  • Role and responsibilities

This unit aims to ensure you refresh your knowledge and gain confidence in recognising and responding to clinical deterioration. This unit serves to give an underpinning framework for you to further develop your knowledge that is most relevant to your individual cohort/clinical setting. It is important that you ensure you are familiar with local emergency procedures and medical emergency management for your context of practice. You will include your individualised learning in your development portfolio for this unit.

  • Clinical assessment and decision making
  • Escalation
  • Delirium and behaviours of concern
  • Documentation
  • Medical emergencies and codes

This unit aims to ensure you understand your responsibilities and legal requirements pertaining to documentation and the medical record. Completing this unit will assist you to understand how to create contemporaneous, reliable and accurate records as a novice practitioner within the broader team across all settings.

  • Managing workload and effective use of time/resources
  • Care planning and delegation
  • Techniques to meet care needs/demand
  • Managing competing priorities
  • Saying no and seeking help/support

This unit aims to ensure you refresh your knowledge on nursing law and ethics. This unit builds on previous topics including applying the scope of practice framework to your practice, Good Samaritan acts and the professional framework and NMBA registration (Unit 1), medications safety (Unit 4), Advanced Care Planning, end of life care, not for resuscitation orders (Unit 5), and the legal requirements of documentation (Unit 6).

  • Building confidence
  • Resolving conflict
  • What is a good team player?
  • How and when to speak up – Escalating confidently
  • What is team nursing?

This unit aims to ensure you refresh your knowledge on your professional obligations, behaviours and boundaries. This is an area where the lines between practice and building rapport with those we care for can become easily blurred. This unit builds on previous topics including ensuring your registration standards and standards for practice are integrated into your practice, and the professional framework and NMBA codes that guide your decision-making (Unit 1).

  • Nursing and the Law
  • Implications for nursing practice
  • Ethically challenging scenarios
  • Exploring own values
  • Case study

This unit aims to ensure you gain an insight into the international issues for nursing – not least the events of 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic, and how this has shaped and determined our profession of the future. You will gain a deeper awareness of the work of the Australian College of Nursing and the International bodies that govern and represent nurses across the world. It can be daunting to begin to delve into international platforms and networks, but as you have joined not only the largest profession in the world but also the most trusted, you are now part of a worldwide network of colleagues and supporters! Once you attend your first International professional conference you will be hooked!

  • Collaborating effectively with others
  • Social media, bullying and the code of conduct
  • Gifts and benefits
  • Professional expectations in and out of work
  • Responsibilities and relationships

This unit aims to ensure you gain an insight into the roles of nurses outside of hospital settings, and the significant importance of primary care in our health care system.

Internationally, there has been a shift towards prevention and avoiding hospital admissions over recent years. This means nurses are playing critical roles in supporting primary care in local services, regional centres and remote communities across the country. There are a plethora of services delivered by nurses which both prevent hospital admission and support consumers after hospital care. Whether you are an EN or RN,  you must have insight into these services to understand the system and how to best support people through their health care journey.

  • What are the global challenges facing nursing?
  • International issues
  • The work of the College, ICN and WHO
  • International Sustainability Goals
  • Getting involved and your contribution

This unit aims to ensure you gain an insight into the responsibilities of leaders and coordinators of teams and the delegation and supervision requirements when working with a range of professionals, nurses and health care workers.

Becoming a leader can seem daunting. However, all nurses play a leadership role in the care they deliver every day as they advocate for people, coordinate and plan care and work effectively in teams to meet goals and positive health outcomes.

  • Leading a team
  • Mentoring – self and others
  • Delegation and supervision – Skill mix and staffing
  • Building your professional network
  • Leader vs. Manager
  • Recognising role models
  • Career planning

This unit aims to ensure you gain an insight into the regulation of advanced practice, the scope of practice and how to commence planning your career. Considering your path at this stage can seem daunting. However, it is essential that you begin to understand the options you have as you consider the next steps in your journey. This unit has been purposefully designed for RNs. Although ENs can work in independent roles and undertake further studies, the legislation that governs scope and accountability does not enable ENs to practice independently in advanced practice roles without the supervision of an RN or RM.

  • Expanding and regulating scope of practice
  • Advancing clinical practice
  • Lifelong learning and post graduate education
  • Career pathways and specialisation

Frequently asked questions

The Transition to Practice program is self-directed, online and completed within six months. The program is made up of 12-13 modules each with 4 hours of content and required a minimum of 52-56 hours of study access the entire series.

We recommend doing the program in a more concentrated tempo and completing it within eight to twelve weeks focusing on one unit at a time. Please note that you will have to complete the previous unit to be able to move on to the next unit.

13 modules forming an online transition to practice program for newly qualified Registered and Enrolled Nurses. 12 generic units suitable for RN or EN completion, plus 1 additional unit applicable to Registered Nurses:

  • Where participants are employed in clinical practice via local graduate programs by their employer, these units can be accessed to complement learning and performance. Units may be accessed on a modular basis as relevant to the individual’s learning and development needs.
  • Where participants are practising clinically, but not engaged in formal transition programs, these units will complement, and support practice and assessment of practical application can be completed in the workplace. It is recommended all units be completed in this scenario.
  • Where participants are not practising, these units will provide a framework and evidence active continuous learning and development to reassure future employers of underpinning knowledge and sound preparation for practice. All units should be completed by this cohort.

Yes, if you complete the entire program then complete a final survey, you will be awarded 56 CPD hours. You will also receive a certificate.

The program prepares newly qualified Registered and Enrolled Nurses for a confident entry into the workforce. The program allows new grads who have not secured a graduate position to gain equivalent knowledge Upon completion of the program’s 13 modules, participants will be able to provide future employers with evidence of their knowledge, commitment to continuous learning and development and their readiness for practice.

  • Where participants are employed in clinical practice via local graduate programs by their employer, these units can be accessed to complement learning and performance. Units may be accessed on a modular basis as relevant to the individual’s learning and development needs.
  • Where participants are practising clinically, but not engaged in formal transition programs, these units will complement, and support practice and assessment of practical application can be completed in the workplace. It is recommended all units be completed in this scenario.
  • Where participants are not practising, these units will provide a framework and evidence active continuous learning and development to reassure future employers of underpinning knowledge and sound preparation for practice. All units should be completed by this cohort.

The program is designed for newly qualified Registered and Enrolled Nurses. Once they graduated and registered, they should be able to access this program.

The program is not intended to replace any current graduate programs nor placement programs. The Transition to Practice program would better support participants and give them a better chance of obtaining employment.

No assessments have been included in this program. There is a reflective blog that you can print off at the end of each unit. You can use this evidence in your professional portfolio or as evidence when seeking employment.

Registration fee

50% discount for all members:
$1,250

Full price for all non-members:
$2,500

Contact us

e:  membership@acn.edu.au
t: 1800 061 660