About

With over 1500 students in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, JCU Nursing and Midwifery is renowned for its friendliness and sense of family. Students never feel like just another number – with extensive support services, our students receive the personal attention they need to achieve their best. There are 30 academic staff across our four teaching sites in Townsville, Cairns, Mackay and Mount Isa. Approximately 120 casual tutors and clinical educators are required to assist with the teaching and clinical placement of students at our campuses and clinical facilities throughout the North Queensland region. The JCU campuses are  equipped with simulated hospital wards, lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, and laboratories for biophysical science classes.

JCU Nursing and Midwifery has a vibrant culture of research. Together we aim to enhance our tropical focus through promoting excellence in research and research education. We deliver outcomes that have impact, with a proven track record in both contract research and competitive  grants. Our research culture is one to be proud of. We work hard to make a difference and are experts in developing research capacity both in Australia and the Western Pacific. JCU Nursing and Midwifery offers higher degree research education through either a Master of Philosophy or Doctor of Philosophy. Using a doctoral cohort approach has proven very effective in building candidates’ confidence, knowledge and skills, with annual research schools and writing retreats creating an opportunity to share work in a supportive environment.

Occupational Therapy is a health profession that offers support and advice for children and adults who are having difficulties with their everyday living skills. Occupational Therapists (OT’s) work with individuals with any condition or impairment that affects their ability to perform everyday activities. Such as self-care, safety in the home, play and social skills, as well as their ability to attend and engage in the workforce, community or school.

The JCU Physiotherapy teaching philosophy is to provide students from a diverse range of backgrounds with a supportive, challenging and inspiring learning environment which enables them to grow as people and develop the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to work successfully as a physiotherapist on graduation. We have a strong focus on the development of skills and knowledge to enable graduates to understand the communities within our region to provide appropriate, sustainable and clinically relevant services to address the issues found in rural, remote, Indigenous and tropical communities.

Our role is to foster engagement and lifelong enquiry allowing our graduates to work as part of a team whilst accepting individual responsibility and recognition of their own and the professions limits. We seek to use scholarly activities and innovation in our teaching strategies to prepare our graduates for an ever changing health care environment where new technologies, treatments and areas of practice continue to emerge. These strategies include face to face and online learning, interprofessional education, case based scenarios, simulation, work integrated learning and critical reflective practice.

We value, respect and support our students and understand that learning from one another is a key aspect in the development of people and the physiotherapy profession. We seek to serve as role models as educators, clinicians, researchers and community members whilst recognising that each person is responsible for their own life.

For more than 50 years Psychology at JCU has earned a strong reputation for the integrity of its courses and the quality of its graduates. Psychology was a foundation discipline at the beginning of James Cook University in 1970 in Townsville, at the opening of the Cairns campus in 1987, and at the establishment of the Singapore campus in 2003. Psychology is renowned for its undergraduate courses and postgraduate clinical programs accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC).

As well as a spectrum of accredited 3-year and 4-year undergraduate psychology programs, JCU Psychology offers excellent, integrated postgraduate professional coursework training leading to Graduate Certificates, Graduate Diplomas, Bachelors and Master of Psychology (Clinical and Professional Psychology). A lively and innovative postgraduate research training is provided, which offers both PhD and Masters degrees in a wide range of specialisations.

Speech pathologists are trained health professionals who assess, diagnose, treat and manage people with communication and swallowing difficulties. They provide information and education to the patient, their families, and other health professionals. They also advocate for their clients to ensure they are provided with the best possible services.

Speech pathologists work with people of all ages who experience disorders of communication and swallowing, from newborn babies, through early childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and to the late stages of life. Communication disorders include difficulties with speech, language, reading, writing, signs, symbols, gestures, and the social conventions for how we interact with each other. A person who has difficulty swallowing food and/or drink has a swallowing disorder.

The discipline of Sport and Exercise Science (SES) was founded in 1994 accepting its first students in 1995. The Sport and Exercise Science discipline within the College of Healthcare Sciences has over 380 students in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

A degree in Sport and Exercise Science will give you the opportunity to work in a rewarding career in a variety of settings. Graduates from Sport and Exercise Science and Exercise Physiology (Clinical) courses have a strong understanding of the processes and mechanisms underlying human physical activity with a focus on the role of exercise for health and disease management (Clinical) or for the enhancement of human performance in occupational, sport, exercise and leisure settings (SES). We have a particular focus on the relationship between exercise and health in rural/remote/tropical living environments. Our campuses are equipped with excellent facilities and state-of-the-art exercise physiology and movement analysis laboratories.