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Melbourne Registered Nurse Graduate Program

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The Graduate Nursing Program at St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Melbourne educates and supports newly registered nurse graduates to develop confidence, professionalism and clinical expertise, whilst providing experience in a diverse and challenging range of speciality nursing environments.  We are committed to developing your career and ensuring that your graduate year will be an exciting and rewarding experience. 


At St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Melbourne we are committed to providing you with a strong foundation for your career development.  We offer a supportive and nurturing environment for lifelong learning, through training, mentorship, networking and learning experiences to consolidate your clinical skills and critical thinking abilities to set you up for a meaningful and successful career. 


When you join St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne, you will work at one or more of our four locations across Melbourne: Fitzroy, East Melbourne, Kew and Werribee.

Aims of the program

We recognise that as a nursing student you may have had limited opportunities to explore different clinical areas. Our program is designed to allow you to explore these opportunities so that in the future you will have a better understanding of where you would like to focus your nursing career and consolidate your nursing skills.


 Our program will:

•    offer you a range of rotation options so that you gain comprehensive clinical experience

•    enable you to use your knowledge to achieve quality patient outcomes

•    increase your confidence and strengthen your skills base

•    develop your ability to work independently and as a team member

•    enhance your decision making and critical thinking skills

•    create a supportive environment for you to enjoy your nursing career and development

What does the program entail?

The St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Melbourne Registered Nurse Graduate Program is conducted across our four hospital locations and graduates can rotate across the different campuses. 


•    The 12-month program provides you with the opportunity to tailor your individual program and explore 2 x 6-month rotations in clinical areas you wish to gain experience in. 

(You do not require undergraduate experience in your nominated clinical areas of interest). 

•    The choice of Part time (8 shifts/fortnight) or Full time (10 shifts/fortnight) hours

•    A comprehensive orientation program introduces you to St Vincent’s Private Hospitals

•    During your graduate year you will be supported with paid study days  

•    Access to our Wellbeing Coordinator for one-on-one support or clinical debriefing

•    A dedicated Graduate Coordinator and Clinical Coach support team

Rotation types

General Ward Rotations

•    Cardiac/Cardiothoracic

•    Thoracic

•    Haematology and Oncology

•    Renal

•    Colorectal and Upper Gastrointestinal Disease

•    Acute Neurosciences 

•    Vascular

•    Orthopaedics

•    Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

•    Urology

•    Gynaecology

•    General Surgery

•    Ear Nose and Throat

Speciality Rotations

•    Coronary Care and Cardiac Services

•    Day Procedure Unit

•    Intensive Care Unit

•    Paediatrics

•    Theatre - Peri-operative & PACU


Clinical support

The Education team at St Vincent’s Private are confident that you will have the support you need to achieve your goals. Our education team are hands on and are willing to assist you.


Our graduates receive extensive clinical support on each rotation who work alongside the specialty and ward based clinical coaches, all who provide hands on bedside clinical support and education in a friendly and supportive manner.


You will be allocated a preceptor on each rotation that will also work alongside you to facilitate your learning and transition as a registered nurse. 


On each ward rotation you will receive supernumery time and a graduated workload to assist you in the transition to registered nurse. You will receive additional supernumerary time for speciality rotations.


We offer extensive education programs, including paid study days, access to ward based education, twilight seminars and short courses.



Application Details                                                   APPLY HERE

We welcome applications from all universities throughout Australia and New Zealand. You don’t have to have completed a clinical placement with us to apply.



2024 Program

Important Dates:


Applications for our 2025 Graduate Registered Nurse Program is now open. 

Applications must be submitted through St Vincent’s Private Workday by 5pm 21st June 2024.


Eligible applicants must have completed a Bachelor of Nursing Program or equivalent no earlier than 1st June 2024.


All (Local /Interstate/New Zealand/International) applicants need to register and apply via the PMCV Allocation and Placement Service. For information regarding this service, please contact PMCV. Applications are submitted via St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne Workday



Application Requirements                                 APPLY HERE

All applications must be submitted online via St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne Workday in a PDF format and include:


•    A cover letter 

•    Succinct Curriculum Vitae (no more than three pages) including phone and email address 

•    Two referees. One from second or third year placements (from an adult acute placement of two weeks or longer) and the second can be your current employment manager.

•    A certified copy of your academic transcript (including legend).

•    Two certified acute medical or surgical ward clinical assessment tools (eg. ANSAT). 

•    Clinical Tools must be two weeks or longer and either from second or third year placements undertaken in Australia or New Zealand. Please upload the entire document, not just the summary. We require every page of the document including notes pages.

 •    We do not accept clinical assessment tools from Mental Health, Community or Theatre (we will accept a PACU clinical tool) nursing placements. 

•    All students are required to include their PMCV number.



Certification of documents


Most universities now use electronic documentation for clinical placement assessment and academic transcripts. Online documents are kept securely by the university so these can be submitted without further certification. The documents must be uploaded in pdf format. Please do not provide links.


Universities that have documents that are handwritten must be certified prior to scanning and uploading.


Please ensure you follow the AHPRA guidelines for document certification available via this link -Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - Certifying Documents (ahpra.gov.au). 


Interview process

The Graduate Program Coordinator will review all applications.

If you have been selected for an interview you will be contacted via telephone. 

The earlier your application is received, the more flexibility you will have in selecting a suitable interview time. Aim to have your application in at least a week prior to the closing date.

If you have not been selected for an interview you will receive notification via Workday.

Our interviews will commence in mid-July.  


For further information:


If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Carolyn Price, Graduate Nurse Coordinator on 03 9411 7763 or via email SVPHM.Education.Programs@svha.org.au 


Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. At the interview stage, you will outline your preferences for which intake you would like to go into and which clinical areas you would like to rotate through. Every effort will be made to ensure your rotations match your preferences, however some areas are more popular than others. We never send any graduate to an area that they have ranked in the lower half of preference lists. Graduates are encouraged to rotate into a specialty area as part of the program. All graduate rotations are to acute care areas, we do not offer rotations to aged care or rehabilitation.
We know that you have put a lot of time and effort into preparing your application and we will review all applications. Please pay particular attention to your spelling and grammar. It is a good idea to get someone to check your application. Make sure you send in all of the required information and aim to send in your application at least one week prior to the closing date.
Whilst you are preparing your application, we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have, via phone or email.
We welcome applications from all universities and you do not need to have conducted your placement with St Vincent’s Private.
Our priority is to ensure that our patients receive the highest standard of care and our nurse patient ratio is determined by the acuity and complexity of the care required. As a graduate you will work in a team of nurses in a collaborative care model.
Upon completion of the program you may have the opportunity to work in a variety of clinical areas, including specialty areas or to further extend yourself with post graduate studies.
Our patient mix ensures that you will be able to care for patients who have had highly acute and complex surgical procedures such as open heart surgery, acute interventional cardiac procedures, major orthopaedic and reconstructive surgery, craniotomies and spinal surgery, major abdominal and vascular surgery. We also receive acute admissions from surrounding emergency departments and direct emergency ambulance admissions.
We only require you to complete a maximum of two weeks night duty during the program.

Better and fairer care. Always.

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