Div 2 or Enrolled Nurse - A typical Day at work

Hi Anth,

First of all, dont be scared of the vetassess test. Its a bit tricky yes and of course all tests and exams give us fear...but if you know the basics you will be fine.

Div 2's work in loads of areas, endorsed and non endorsed. I am currently not endorsed (but working towards it) and I work in an acute surgical ward in a private hospital. There is no real limits these days for Div 2's and they can work anywhere and everywhere, especially with endorsement.

Hope you decide to take the step into nursing..it is very rewarding!

Hi Anth,

I had ppl tell me all the time not to bother with Div 2 and I ignore them. What they go on about is a pile of crap! Div2's are so different to the way they used to be, more knowledgable and way more empolyable now. Plus there are alot more opportunities coming out for us now. We are very employable in all areas as we know alot and are cheaper than Div 1! Ignore their bad unknowing attitudes (can you tell its a sore point lol)

You can certainly work in plenty of other ares and not just aged care. Try maternity, surgical, theatre, medical wards, drs surgeries, DPU...shall I go on lol?

Dont get me wrong...I think div 1s do a great job and i am not undervaluing them...in fact I plan to do my div 1 (mainly for my own knowledge base and career advancement) but I think the way things are going..we are all headed towards the same thing anyway. I just get irked with ppls naieve attitudes.

I have only been out as a div 2 for a few months. I got my registration and got straight into the job I am in now an have been there 2 months. It has its ups and downs as all jobs do but I really like it. Acute surgical can be very busy but its good and you learn a hell of alot.

As for fitting it in with a young family, well I manage well enough with the support of my hubby. We have a 2.5 year old and an 8 year old and between us we juggle the childcare and school stuff. Its really not that difficult and if your heart is in your work and its what you want to do..then it works. There are so many opportunities in nursing and so many areas you can fit it in pretty well with a family. At times the studying got tricky with placements and stuff but nothing we couldnt manage.

Good luck with things and im here if you have any more questions :-)

Hi Keeshy,

Can you please share some more info on what a div 2 can actually do in maternity? Although I would like to get some experience in general nursing once qualified to register, I ultimately would love to do maternity but thought only div 1's / midwives could do so. Thanks.

The radiology nursing sounds interesting!! I want to try and get into something like that. Smaller clinics and things like that.

Belinda within my grad program there are 3 of the girls that work in maternity. They do alot of education for pre and post natal care and I think they are getting the chane to work in delivery suite as well. It would not be delivering babies of course but it would be assisting with the monitoring and things like that.

There are plenty of things you can do without having to be a midwife or so diplomas, though of course gaining these extra qualifications are only going to open doors and create more opportunities.

Hi Jules,

I know that Keeshy is/was a Div 2 at the time of writing that post. In fact, I'm a Div 2 doing a "grad" program as well. I'm at a private hospital, with my first 6 months spent on a cardiac/respirator & general medical ward, and now in my second 6 months, I'm in Oncology. Other Div 2s in my grad year are in all different types of surgical wards, and it's all Acute nursing.

So important for everyone reading to understand what keeshy, myself and others are saying: if you go looking, a Div 2/EN can work almost anywhere. The hospital where I am employs Div 2s into theatre, endoscopy, day surg, as well as all the acute wards. I see job ads for other hospitals advertising for Div 2's in maternity too (it was the Mercy at that time).

An interesting thing to note is (in Victoria, don't know about the rest of Aust) that it's the Private hospitals that really invest in Div 2's, by offering by far the most number of grad programs and up-skilling specialty courses for for Div 2s. They do employ Div 2's in public too, of course, and in fact I want to work there next, but private hospitals generally have a higher % of Div 2's.

The RCNA Nursing Expo is usually in May each year (in Melbourne, anyway), and it is such a GREAT way to find out who offers what, and to get some contact details. I basically went last time and asked all the places I was remotely interested in whether they employed new Div 2s, what kind of support/program they offer, etc. Also, subscribe to an online jobsearch to receive emailed job ads - I did that about 6 months before finishing my tafe course to get a good idea of where jobs were. That's how I found out about maternity, for instance.

Best of luck, not sure I've said anything useful, but I love being a nurse and it's such a great, flexible and rewarding career! I'm studying by distance, doing my Div 1, but I love being a div 2 too.