About our program

The Graduate Nurse Program (GNP) at Austin Health is well established and takes around 180 graduate nurses each year across all our streams.

Our graduate nurses participate in a well-structured and highly supportive program that offers many learning and development opportunities across our four sites.

We believe that graduate support and education is everyone’s business, and this is the culture that we foster at Austin Health.

The nursing education and ward teams strive to achieve best practice clinical learning environments for our graduate nurses, ensuring we deliver the best patient experiences and develop our early career nurses for a robust career in nursing.

Program streams

• General stream

  Participate in a well-structured and highly supportive program that offers many learning and development opportunities.

• Mental health stream

  Work in a supportive environment in a range of mental health settings with a focus on consumer-centred high quality care.

• Combined stream

  A specialised program for nurses who are passionate about both general and mental health nursing.

What we offer

• Dedicated Early Career Coordinators
• Dedicated Early Career Educator
• Two rotations (6 months each)
• Large variety of acute and specialty rotations
• Opportunities to work in high dependency units
• Comprehensive orientation program
• Supernumerary time each rotation
• Dedicated study days for each stream
• Online learning
• Structured reflective practice

Benefits of working at Austin Health

We offer a range of benefits, including salary packaging, wellbeing programs and staff discounts.

A safe and inclusive workplace

We are committed to supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce, by providing an inclusive environment where all cultures are valued and respected. We have a number of initiatives in place to support this commitment.

As a member of the Victorian Aboriginal Graduate and Cadetship Network there is a dedicated support and guidance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates. 

For more information please contact: graduatenurseprogram@austin.org.au

More information

We’re in the process of setting the dates for our information sessions on the 2026 Graduate Nurse Program- please check back soon for more details!

Stay up to date

Here's how you can stay up to date with everything that's happening:

• Follow the Instagram handle @austinhealthgnp
• Email graduatenurseprogram@austin.org.au

Beyond the graduate year

Austin Health provides a wide range of opportunities beyond the Graduate Nurse Program, with more than 92 per cent of graduates staying on with Austin Health after completion.

• Transition to specialty practice programs

  Learn about our programs for registered nurses in specialty clinical areas.

• Nursing postgraduate programs

  Find out about our range of postgraduate programs for registered nurses.

Contact us

Graduate Nurse Program

Email: graduatenurseprogram@austin.org.au

Instagram: @austinhealthgnp