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In her own words: nursing student Poonam Subedi on her life at ACU

"The ACU course has exceeded my expectations... the university is a welcoming place."

I'm currently studying the Bachelor of Nursing at ACU's Melbourne campus. I was doing nursing back in my home country of Nepal, but I wanted to explore nursing outside my country, to have a new learning experience.

I came to Australia because my family is here - my sister, my brother, my brother-in-law and my nephew. My sister used to tell me about the places she used to go and visit. I saw her pictures, so I was always fantasising about being in Australia.

The ACU course has exceeded my expectations. I'm learning theory, as well as practical and clinical skills. We get to practise real-world situations in our lab classes, so we have a theoretical session before each lab class, and then we apply what we learn using real-world equipment and facilities. That gives us great experience so that when we're exposed to real nursing situations, we're not afraid.

The teachers are also very supportive. They're all experienced nurses who have worked in hospitals for more than 15 or 30 years. They share their stories, what happened in the hospital, different situations they've been in and how they tackled professional challenges. Through their stories, we get to learn.

The university is a welcoming place - it has such a friendly environment and I've made friends with students from around the world. One memorable experience was the day I went with friends to a Korean restaurant. I'd never tried Korean food before, but since all my friends are from different countries, we decided that we'll all try each other's food. So I tried Korean food - some soup with noodles, a lamb dish. It was amazing!

When I'm not studying, I work as an aged care nurse. I feel financially independent when I work. In my country, you can't really work while you study at university, but in Australia, you'll get that flexibility. I want to become an expert aged cared nurse. After my bachelor's, I'll work for a few years and then I'm planning to do a master's degree. I want to upgrade my knowledge.

ACU is Australia's sixth-ranked university for nursing and #14 in the world. Find out how an ACU Nursing degree can help you kickstart your nursing career - talk to our international student support team for more information today.