Mackay HHS Welcomes 79 New Graduate Nurses For 2025

Mackay Hospital and Health Service (HHS) has welcomed another strong intake of graduate registered nurses for the year as the third orientation session reaches completion this week.

Mackay HHS Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery James Williams Jenkins said 79 newly qualified nurses have been recruited to the 2025 Mackay HHS Nursing and Midwifery Graduate Program.

The three cohorts were comprised of 16 new nurses in December, 38 in January and another 25 graduates welcomed to the Mackay HHS in February.

“We are delighted to welcome our large annual cohort of graduate nurses to the health service where they will consolidate and further develop the clinical skills they learned at university,” Mr Jenkins said.

The Mackay HHS Nursing and Midwifery Graduate Program is twelve months in duration across Mackay Base Hospital and rural hospitals.

“Graduate nurses undertake placements across any of the 25 clinical areas in the Base Hospital including mental health, emergency, renal, medical, cardiac, surgical, oncology and theatres, as well as across our rural facilities,” Mr Jenkins said.

Seventeen nurse graduates are undertaking rural placement across the Mackay HHS at facilities including Proserpine, Clermont, Bowen, Sarina, Moranbah and Dysart and there are three midwifery graduates in the program in 2025.

“They will be supported with mentoring, theoretical and clinical guidance to ensure we build safe, confident and competent nurses,” Mr Jenkins said.

“Most graduates studied at CQ University and James Cook University and many are from the Mackay region.

“We are also pleased to welcome nursing graduates from other parts of Queensland and New South Wales as well as New Zealand.”

Mackay HHS continues to support graduate registered nurses after their first year of professional practise with excellent retention rates, Mr Jenkins said.

Nursing graduate Jenna Grieve’s work experience in remote First Nations communities and her husband’s health battle has helped shape her career.

She moved to Mackay in 2022 to enable her husband to dialyse at Mackay Base Hospital three times a week and in December she started her post-graduate year in the Mackay Base Hospital emergency department.

“I never thought I’d want to work in ED when I started nursing,” she said.

“The chaos of ED scared me originally. Now I love it and it’s a place where you can use all your skills.

“I really like being able to educate people; to be there to help them through the toughest times,” she said.

Jenna was recently presented with the James Cook University Yuwi Award, awarded to the most deserving student in their final year of their Bachelor of Nursing Science degree on the Mackay campus.

“I thought that’s pretty cool; it’s a nice way to end my studies and I look forward to continuing to use my skills in the Base hospital ED.”

Moving to the small rural community of Clermont with her family, Selina Sale originally thought her career options were limited.

“So I started my diploma and working at Clermont Hospital seven years ago as an AIN (Assistant in Nursing),” she said.

“I’ve been there ever since working as an enrolled nurse and I also trained as a rural x-ray operator three years ago.”

Selina’s nursing degree took four years to complete and she did placement at Emerald Hospital in the emergency department as well as in the Rockhampton Hospital intensive care unit. Her post-graduate year will now be in Clermont.

Selina is proud to have graduated from Central Queensland University and be one of the 16 grad nurses in the December intake at Mackay HHS.

“I’m only the second person in my family to graduate from uni,” she said.

“It’s pretty big for them, my mum is super stoked.”

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Mackay Hospital and Health Service has welcomed 79 new graduate nurses for 2025, with placements across Mackay Base Hospital and rural facilities to develop their clinical skills and support regional healthcare. Photos supplied

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