University of Notre Dame Australia
Graduate Certificate in Clinical Nursing
- Delivery: Online
- Study Level: Postgraduate
- Duration: 6 months
Strengthen your clinical nursing practice through a combination of workplace learning and online study, developing advanced assessment, clinical governance and decision-making skills with a pathway to further postgraduate nursing study.
Course overview
The Graduate Certificate in Clinical Nursing from The University of Notre Dame Australia is a postgraduate qualification designed for graduate registered nurses in their first year of clinical practice. Delivered in partnership with participating healthcare providers, the program combines workplace learning with online study to support the transition into professional nursing practice while developing clinical knowledge and decision-making skills.
You will study advanced health assessment, clinical nursing practice and clinical governance while completing clinical rotations and written projects as part of your employment in a clinical setting. Depending on your entry pathway, you will complete transition-to-clinical-practice units or core nursing units with an elective in areas such as the deteriorating patient, acute mental health or contemporary palliative care.
On completion, you may continue your studies with the Graduate Diploma of Clinical Nursing and later progress to the Master of Nursing.
CSP Subsidised Fees Available
This program has a limited quota of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP). The indicative CSP price is calculated based on first year fees for EFT. The actual fee may vary if there are choices in electives or majors.
Key facts
From $592 (CSP)
12th July, 2027
What you will study
To earn the Graduate Certificate in Clinical Nursing, you must successfully complete units totalling 100 credit points, as detailed below. Unless otherwise noted, each course is worth 25 credit points.
Core units
- Transition to Clinical Practice 1 (50 credit points)
- Transition to Clinical Practice 2 (50 credit points)
Entry requirements
Applicants for this course must meet one of the following:
- Hold a current license to practice as a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia or provisional registration, whichever is applicable at the time of commencement.
- Nursing or other appropriate degree or the equivalent.
- Current employment contract for the term of the program with an approved health service.
Outcomes
Career outcomes
The Graduate Certificate in Clinical Nursing will allow qualified nurses to become clinical leaders in their chosen fields.
Careers include:
- Nurse educators
- Nurse managers
- Nurse practitioners
- Nurse researchers or research managers.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the Graduate Certificate in Clinical Nursing, graduates will be able to:
- Integrate comprehensive knowledge and skills required of the Registered Nurse to plan and provide increasingly complex assessments, diagnoses, interventions and evaluations for patients from diverse cultural and social backgrounds.
- Critique models and theories of nursing practice and apply them to the current healthcare context.
- Communicate effectively and negotiate confidently.
- Employ clinical reasoning and decision-making strategies that enhance organisational capability and responsiveness.
- Collaborate with a range of healthcare professionals to provide excellent patient care and achieve common goals.
- Model professional behaviours to colleagues and students that provide clients with culturally appropriate and social care within a medico-legal framework.
- Cultivate productive working relationships by guiding, mentoring and developing nursing students and colleagues.
- Establish a mechanism for lifelong learning by reflecting on practice to apply and build professional expertise.
- Conduct research, retrieval and enquiry to debate contemporary clinical nursing challenges on the global stage, incorporating philosophical, technical and social justice perspectives.
Fees and CSP
Indicative annual fee in 2026: $2,368 (Commonwealth Supported Place).
Indicative annual fee in 2026: $12,900 (Full-fee paying place)
Indicative annual fees are based on your first year of study.
A student’s annual fee may vary by:
- The number of units studied.
- Choice of units.
- Credit from previous study or work experience.
- Eligibility for government-funded loans.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.
Commonwealth Supported Places
The Australian Government allocates a certain number of CSPs to the universities each year, which are then distributed to students based on merit.
If you're a Commonwealth Supported Student (CSS), you'll only need to pay a portion of your tuition fees. This is known as the student contribution amount – the balance once the government subsidy is applied. This means your costs are much lower.
Limited CSP spaces are offered to students enrolled in selected postgraduate courses.
Your student contribution amount is:
- Calculated per the course you're enrolled in.
- Dependent on the study areas they relate to.
- Reviewed and adjusted each year.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.
HECS-HELP loans are available to CSP students to pay the student contribution amount.
FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying domestic students with the cost of a university program.
