Ms Casslick said she wanted to undertake the course at home in Lightning Ridge.

“I was told we could get it going here but only if at least 15 people showed interest and enrolled.”

“Then would we be getting funding,” she said.

Ms Casslick said by doing the course it would enable her to advance in her job and do more things in her field staff position.

“In the bigger hospitals they want to get the qualified people, so that the registered nurses can attend to more important work,” she said.

“At the moment it is really a huge issue because of the nurse shortage currently being experienced across the board.”

Ms Casslick said she didn’t know anyone else in the community who might want to study the assistant in nursing course at TAFE, but said she was looking.

“So now I will probably have to travel to Dubbo to do the course.

“While it’s only for one day a week, on Mondays, it is a major disruption personally, and will mean that I will need to spend many hours on the road,” she said.

“I will also have to stay overnight on the Sunday, which is an added cost as well.”

Ms Casslick who filled out the application form to attend the course in Dubbo yesterday, said there was a huge interest at that campus so she’s not even sure if she’ll get in.

“At the moment the course is fairly full, so I’ll probably only get a placing if one of the other students enrolled drops out.”

“So if I don’t get in, I want to create enough interest within the community so TAFE can run a course locally,” she said.

Ms Casslick said she believed it would be beneficial for everyone involved and is urging those interested to call Liz Shuttle at the Dubbo TAFE campus as soon as possible, so funding can be secured for a course to start in semester two.