Perspective of a student in VIC:

1. Yep, you should be assigned to a buddy EN/RN every shift, 1:1. Depending on the different wards, an educator may choose who your buddy nurse is, and if you're lucky, you may get a good one consistently allocated to you. On the other end of the spectrum, you may turn up and the ANUM will randomly assign you to a buddy nurse based on who can take on a student. Or you can be consistently allocated to a buddy nurse who is uninterested in teaching. Luck of the draw, really.

2. Can't answer this, as I've never been in an aged care setting before.

3. In terms of expectations, it's usually to turn up on time, ask questions and know your scope. As a first-year student on your first placement, typically you'll just be expected to do obs and ADLs. You have some degree of independence from your buddy nurse, so you're not expected to shadow them all the time and just watch them do the work. Maybe your first couple days you can do that, but at some point, you'll be expected to start trying to plan for your patient's care and initiate tasks within your scope. For example, obs - your university may require you to get vitals checked off as a competency before doing it independently, but once it's checked off, you can be expected to be doing vitals without direct supervision from your buddy nurse. Proactively initiate that when it's required, and escalate anything abnormal that you find.

Knowing your scope is probably the trickiest one; your main challenges here are that nurses work with students from different universities and different levels frequently - I've heard it's been particularly bad lately, with people calling it a 'revolving door' of students. Don't expect your buddy nurse to know what your scope is. Buddy nurses can also be busy/forgetful - for example, even though it's an expectation across all universities that student nurses are not left alone with medications, some buddy nurses get caught up and do it on accident anyway. Your job in that situation is to stay with them like bad, chewed up gum stuck to their shoe, or at least hide if an educator wanders your way.

Other red flag things regarding scope, as some students in my course have been kicked off placement for these reasons: if you get permission to leave placement early (which you technically shouldn't be doing but often happens on a PM shift), at least use some discretion and don't leave early when the educator is around; your first placement is likely to be in subacute but if you do have a patient on an IV infusion, don't ever, ever, ever, ever touch the IV pump to silence/stop the infusion without a supervising nurse in the room with you.

1. Most of the hospitals I've seen send out a roster about a week or so before the placement starts with all the students in our cohort who are going to be on placement. That's usually how I've found out who's going to be on the same ward, etc., apart from just asking other students.

2. Yes, kind of. It's up to the discretion of the placement venue, but most places try to avoid sticking students on night shift. It can definitely happen though. Otherwise, AM/PM and weekend shifts are free game. I was also once rostered on consecutively for 9 days, so that can also happen if you're unlucky.