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With an ACU Health degree, Savita is getting ready to lead

As a nurse in her native India, Savita was already working in the health care sector when she enrolled at ACU. Now a student in the Master of Leadership and Management in Health Care, Savita is now preparing for the next step in her career.

After moving to Australia, Savita started thinking about her own professional future. She was already a registered nurse in her home country, but she saw nursing as just the first step of a broader health care career.

A postgraduate health degree seemed like the obvious next step, so Savita started researching course options at ACU. She chose the Master of Leadership and Management in Health Care at ACU because it offered a wide range of career progression opportunities across more than one health care discipline.

“If you see the outcomes of the course I’m studying, it’s really good for becoming a nurse manager or clinical assistant manager, or if you want to go into leadership or management roles, such as quality care inspector or jobs in [government],” she says.

The practical nature of the course content particularly appealed to Savita. Subjects covered everything from policy and planning in health care to interpreting health research, quality and safety in health care, workforce management, and health care ethics. Learning techniques like role-playing helped her see how her learning could be applied in the workplace.

In particular, she says, a subject about aged care services asked students to think about the real-world challenges that they might encounter in their day-to-day working lives.

“In this subject, we had scenarios in class – ‘If this is the situation and you’re the manager, how are you going to tackle this? What are the strategies you’re going to use?’” she says.

“So basically, when we have these little case scenarios in class and you’re seeing the reality of the job as well, you’re able to understand the situation better.”

In addition to equipping Savita with theoretical learning and practical skills development, the course also helped her prepare for the differences between the Australian and Indian health care sectors.

She says Australia is a much more multicultural society, which means health professionals need to know how to work with colleagues and patients from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

“The subject Organisational Culture and Management in Health Care was really, really important in explaining that we are all from different countries and all in one health care, so it’s important for nurses and managers to understand other people’s backgrounds and culture in the workplace,” she says.

Now in the second year of her master’s, Savita says the skills and confidence she’s gained as a result of studying the course will be important to her future success.

“When we come to Australia as immigrants, international students aren’t always confident. You’re knowledgeable, but it’s just a little hesitation from your culture, from your background,” she says.

“Once you’re here, ACU can help you overcome those things, confidence and communication skills especially.”

Watch Savita talking about her experience below.