Applications are open for admission to a two-year, full-time, welfare-oriented enrolled nurse training programme. The Social Welfare Department and Hospital Authority will run the programme, which will begin in March. The deadline is November 8.

The Social Welfare Department said the training programme, offering 80 places for the general stream and 30 for the psychiatric stream, will help increase the nursing manpower supply for the welfare sector and enhance their service quality.

The programme, with strong clinical and practical emphasis on healthcare, covers subjects including personal and communal health, psychology, first aid and emergency care, food and nutrition, medical and surgical nursing, pharmacology, geriatric nursing, psychiatry and related nursing.

It will be conducted in the Hospital Authority's nursing schools, with clinical placements in hospitals and welfare settings.

Applicants must be aged 18 or over by the time the training programme begins next March. They must have completed secondary school Form 5 education in Hong Kong or equivalent.

Tuition fee fully subsidised

Priority will be given to serving frontline staff of non-governmental organisations or private organisations providing elderly, rehabilitation, family and child care, or correctional services in the welfare sector.

Individuals not working in the welfare sector but aspiring to start a career as enrolled nurses in the welfare sector will also be considered.

The department will fully subsidise each trainee with tuition fees of $50,000. Selected candidates are required to sign an undertaking to indicate their readiness to serve as enrolled nurses in the welfare sector for a continuous period of no less than two years after the training.

A trainee who breaches this agreement must repay the tuition fees in full or in part.

For course details and application form, click here. For enquiries, call the course hotline, 2110 1495.