Inherent requirements for Nursing and Midwifery (postgraduate)

The Western Sydney University School of Nursing and Midwifery (SoNM) strongly supports the right of all people to pursue a postgraduate nursing course at the SoNM to achieve their potential and career objectives. The School is committed to making reasonable adjustments to teaching and learning, assessment, clinical practice and other activities to address the impact of students' disabilities so that they are able to participate in their course.

To support potential and current students' decision making, a series of inherent requirement statements has been developed. These statements specify the course requirements of postgraduate nursing courses for student admission and progression. The statements are clustered under 8 domains consisting of ethical behaviour, behavioural stability, legal, communication, cognition, sensory abilities, strength and mobility and sustainable performance. Many of the activities associated with the professional practice of a registered nurse or midwife are time sensitive, where the capacity to perform certain activities within specified time limits is required to reduce or avoid risks to patient safety and wellbeing. The safety and wellbeing of you and others is always of paramount importance.

Students enrolled in the Master of Mental Health Nursing (Nurse Practitioner), and the Graduate Diploma in Midwifery, are required to undertake clinical placement activities in mixed gender environments which reflect the Australian health care context.

If you are intending to enrol in a post graduate nursing course at the School of Nursing and Midwifery (SoNM), you should look at these Inherent requirement statements and think about whether you may experience challenges in meeting these requirements. If you think you may experience challenges related to your disability, chronic health condition or any other reason, you should discuss your concerns with a campus Disability Advisor or the SoNM staff, such as the Director of Academic Programs, Academic Course Advisor or School Disability Coordinator. These staff can work collaboratively with you to determine reasonable adjustments to assist you to meet the Inherent Requirements. In the case where it is determined that Inherent Requirements cannot be met with reasonable adjustments, the University staff can provide guidance regarding other study options.

These inherent requirements should be read in conjunction with other course information and NMBA publications such as Guidelines for Mandatory Notifications, A Nurse's Guide to Professional Boundaries, National Competency Standards for the Midwife, National Competency Standards for the Nurse Practitioner, and National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse.

Each inherent requirement is made up of the following five levels:

• Level 1 - introduction to the inherent requirement
• Level 2 - description of what the inherent requirement is
• Level 3 - explanation of why this is an inherent requirement of the course
• Level 4 - the nature of any adjustments that may be made to allow you to meet the requirement
• Level 5 - examples of things you must be able to do to show you've met the requirement

For each of the postgraduate courses one or more of the following domains apply. Some domains also have a number of sub domains.

• Ethical Behaviour
• Behavioural Stability
• Legal
• Communication
• Cognition
• Sensory ability
• Strength & Mobility
• Sustainable Performance