A renewed focus on innovation and creative thinking in the provision of health care will provide exciting and crucial opportunities for graduates, according to leading experts in nursing and midwifery at UTS.
“There are many places where energetic midwives and sports scientists who think outside-the-box are needed,” says Professor of Midwifery Maralyn Foureur.
“You find nurses and midwives in all parts of the world trying to alleviate human suffering.”
Professor Foureur and Claudia Virdun, a researcher and lecturer in nursing at UTS, will next year teach the first students who combine UTS's new degree, the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII), with a Bachelor of Midwifery or Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science.
From designing more comfortable and technologically advanced birthing units to helping people at the front-line in politically ravaged remote regions, innovation is desperately sought after in health care provision.
“Our health care system is struggling for want of creative and innovative people who will not be bound by what we’ve currently got,” Professor Foureur says.
“When Banda Aceh was hit by a devastating tsunami in 2004, we had people there coming up with incredibly creative solutions on-the-hop, using only the things around them in the environment to enhance the health of countless people caught in the tragedy.”
Ms Virdun agrees that the future for creative and innovative thinkers is very bright and packed with unique career opportunities, even beyond health care.
“The BCII is planning to break the mould, with UTS graduates who will create totally new ways of thinking,” Ms Virdun says.
“Rather than being bound by disciplinary confines, BCII graduates will go anywhere they want in the health care system and the world.”
There are of course plenty of opportunities for those whose passion lies specifically in patient care.
“Like any other service, the health system needs improvement. Students that really know how to encourage collaboration, creativity and energy towards problem solving will become the transformative, change-making leaders we need.”
- UTS's new Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation will provide exciting opportunities for students who combine the degree with a Bachelor of Midwifery or Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science
- Energetic midwives and sports scientists who think outside-the-box will be crucial in improving Australia's health system, according to two UTS:Health academics