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University of Notre Dame Australia

Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing) Online

  • Delivery: Online
  • Study Level: Postgraduate
  • Duration: 18 months
  • Course Type: Master's

Extend your clinical nursing expertise through advanced study and an independent research project, building specialist knowledge to support evidence-based clinical practice.

Course overview

The Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing) from The University of Notre Dame Australia is designed for registered nurses who have completed a Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma in Clinical Nursing and wish to extend their expertise through advanced study and research. Delivered online over 1.5 years full-time or equivalent part-time, the program enables nurses to further develop specialist knowledge while undertaking research relevant to clinical nursing practice.

Throughout the program, you will deepen your expertise in advanced clinical nursing practice, clinical governance, professional leadership, evidence-based decision-making and the delivery of high-quality patient care. Supported by a research supervisor, you will undertake an independent research project aligned with your area of clinical practice, strengthening your ability to evaluate evidence and contribute to improvements in contemporary nursing care.

The program combines advanced coursework with supervised research, allowing you to tailor your studies to your area of clinical nursing while developing the research capabilities to support evidence-informed professional practice.

Key facts

Delivery
Online
Course Type
Master's
Duration
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Can be studied part time
18 months (Full time)
Price Per Unit
From $3,225
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The estimated fee is determined by individual units of study and the year the course was commenced.
Intake
8th February, 2027
12th July, 2027
Units
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You may be required to complete 0 credit point units throughout your course. The university will confirm this as part of your enrolment.

The unit total reflects the number of units required for course completion, not the total credit point weight. Some units may be double- or triple-weighted, so the number of units you complete may be lower.
12
Fees
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FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying domestic students with the cost of a university course.
FEE-HELP

What you will study

To earn the Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing), you must successfully complete units totalling 300 credit points, as detailed below. Unless otherwise noted, each course is worth 25 credit points.  

Core units
  • Clinical Governance
  • Professional Role Development
  • Management
  • Ethical Issues in Professional Life
  • Evidence-Based Practice
  • Project Proposal Development (50 credit points)
  • Supervised Dissertation in Nursing (50 credit points)
Elective units

Entry requirements

Academic requirements

The program is open to you if you are a registered nurse who has a previous degree or you have accumulated a wealth of experience in nursing but do not have a degree.

English language requirements

  • You must be able to demonstrate two years of full-time secondary, vocational or tertiary level study in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America.
  • If you do not meet these requirements, you will need to sit the Academic IELTS exam and achieve a score of at least 7.0 overall and 7.0 in each sub-section (reading, writing, listening and speaking) to qualify for entry into the Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing). This applies to Permanent Residents and Australian citizens whose first language is not English and who have not completed two years of full-time academic study in Australia. IELTS results will need to be verified by the Admissions Office before an offer of a place can be made. The Admissions Office reserves the right to ask for IELTS results from any applicant.

Recognition of Prior Learning

You may be eligible for recognition of prior learning if you have previously studied or have relevant work experience. This will help reduce the number of units you need to study to finish your course. Contact the university for more information.

Outcomes

Career outcomes

With a Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing), you can pursue careers as a nurse unit manager, nurse practitioner, nurse educator and clinical nurse.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing), graduates will be able to:

  • Analyse and interpret nursing scenarios to provide evidence-based quality practice.
  • Use reflective practice techniques in a range of learning activities to promote professional practice.
  • Apply leadership and collaborative skills within an interprofessional healthcare environment.
  • Apply concepts of global, medico-legal, social and cultural diversity.
  • Identify the distinguishing characteristics of nursing research in terms of purposes, underlying assumptions and available methodologies.
  • Explore the principal paradigms employed in health and nursing research and differentiate between them in terms of their epistemological bases and their respective strengths and limitations in addressing different types of research.
  • Formulate questions amenable to research and align those questions to appropriate research designs, data collection procedures, techniques and data analysis.
  • Critique examples of research studies and models, identifying strengths and limitations of design that might threaten the internal validity and generalisability (external validity) of the findings.
  • Identify the important ethical or other issues when conducting nursing research and apply value appropriate safeguards to the interests of all stake-holders involved a research project.
  • Apply advanced technical skills and reflective practice within the domain of nursing research.

Fees and FEE-HELP

Indicative annual fee in 2026: $38,700 (Full-fee paying place)

Indicative annual fees are based on your first year of study.

A student’s annual fee may vary by:

  • The number of units studied.
  • Choice of units.
  • Credit from previous study or work experience.
  • Eligibility for government-funded loans.

Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.

FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying domestic students with the cost of a university program.