The Premier’s Nursing and Midwifery Scholarships are offered annually to enable nurses and midwives to explore best practice and translate evidence into sustainable outcomes within the South Australian health system.

The Premier's Nursing and Midwifery Scholarships provide nurses and midwives the opportunity to undertake an international observational study tour to the value of $10,000 (AUD).

Eligibility

To be eligible for a Scholarship, you must be employed and working permanently, either full-time or part-time as a nurse and/or midwife in South Australia in the public, private, community or aged care sector.

2025 Premiers Scholarship winners:

Amanda Fitzgerald:

Will investigate the implementation of monoclonal antibody clinics for patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease and examine how to best utilise nursing resources to promote early diagnosis and management. Amanda will tour sites across the United States of America where monoclonal antibody therapy is being provided. These medicines represent the first disease modifying therapies available for Alzheimer’s disease.

Jessica Rice:

Will visit Lung Cancer Screening Programs and Nurse Led Clinics within leading respiratory services in Canada and the United Kingdom. The study tour will focus on cultural and accessibility considerations for developing services for rural and remote communities. The study tour aligns with the Australian Lung Cancer Screening Program that will commence July 2025 and provides an opportunity for culturally inclusive design for rural and remote populations.

Tabatha Rando:

Will visit leading acute care centres of excellence for pressure injury prevention within NHS England National Wound Care Strategy “Stop the pressure”. A review of pressure injury strategies will be undertaken including monitoring processes, staff education resources, the purpose-T pressure risk assessment tool, the patient journey, patient information and advanced tissue viability nursing roles.

Bob Harrington:

Nurse practitioners in Ophthalmology services outside South Australia are proven to be successful in delivering high quality, effective, and sustainable care. Flinders eye centre seeks to investigate and implement nurse practitioner models of care as a strategic move to address escalating demand and existing service gaps. This addition aims to significantly enhance patient accessibility to specialised ophthalmology treatment, making positive steps towards inclusivity and excellence in the overall patient experience.

The study tour will take Mr Harrington to London Moorfield’s Eye Hospital renowned for its leadership in Ophthalmology.

Ellen Murray:

Aims to improve the South Australian health systems capacity to deliver timely, accessible and evidence based gender affirming health care for transgender and gender diverse children and young people living in South Australia. The tour will investigate best practice evidence based gender affirming healthcare services for children and young people in New Zealand with a focus on the role of the Nurse Practitioner in providing Mental Health Support and building the capacity of mainstream health providers to deliver appropriate services for trans and gender diverse young people through education and training.

Chelsea Meintjes:

Plans to investigate state-based approaches to trauma-informed practice and the integration of social determinants of health for children in busy hospital settings with a focus on early intervention. The primary objective is to understand how these practices can be effectively disseminated and implemented across the states hospitals supporting the early identification and intervention for children impacted by health inequities and trauma outside of mental health services. Chelsea’s study tour will take her to Canada whom have taken a leading role in embedding trauma-informed practice and integrating the social determinants of health within health care systems.

Important dates

Applications for 2026 are to open late 2024, (official date to be confirmed)

Further information

2023/2024 Premiers Scholarship Winners

  • Amy Schwartz
  • Steven Hutchinson
  • Louise McGuire
  • Kristian Sanchez
  • David Magadia
  • Benjamin Stanton

2023/2024 Premiers Scholarship Study Tour Reflective Reports

Enquiries

For any enquiries, contact the Nursing and Midwifery Office at Health.NursingandMidwiferyOfficeScholarships@sa.gov.au or call (08) 8226 0813.