You don't always need a separate qualification — once you've completed about a year of a Bachelor of Nursing (or core clinical subjects and a placement) you can usually work as an assistant in nursing, earning and building clinical hours while you finish your degree. Diploma (enrolled-nursing) students can too.
Pay scale
Base rates, in force from 1 January 2026 (incl. 4% interim increase) — before penalties, allowances and overtime. Entry/each step shown (1 January 2026 (incl. 4% interim increase)).
Step
Weekly
Hourly
Annualised
Assistant in Nursing/Midwifery — 1st increment
$1,177.84
$31.00
$61,458
Assistant in Nursing/Midwifery — 2nd increment
$1,212.72
$31.91
$63,278
How to become an assistant in nursing
Certificate III in Health Services Assistance (Acute Care)
The HLT33115 Certificate III (acute-care pathway) is the standard qualification to work as an assistant in nursing — it can even be started in high school.
Nursing degree student (about a year in)
Undergraduate nursing students who have completed one or more years of a Bachelor of Nursing can usually work as an AIN; some start earlier if prior study or experience is recognised.
Enrolled-nursing (Diploma) student
Students partway through a Diploma of Nursing can also be employed as an AIN — earning while they qualify.
Ways to earn more
The entry scale runs $1,177.84–$1,212.72/wk.
The real lever is qualifying — as an enrolled nurse (Diploma) or a registered nurse (degree).
Where it leads: enrolled nurse vs registered nurse
From here, the two routes into nursing practice are the enrolled-nurse (Diploma) and registered-nurse (degree) pathways — a real trade-off:
Enrolled Nurse — Diploma of Nursing (~18–24 months, TAFE)
No university degree — shorter and cheaper training
Start earning as a nurse sooner
Can later bridge to registered nurse
Lower pay ceiling — the EN scale tops out well below the RN scale
Narrower scope of practice (you work under an RN)
Less progression — no clinical-nurse, nurse-practitioner or management track
Registered Nurse — Bachelor of Nursing (3 years, university)
Far higher ceiling and much more progression — clinical nurse, consultant, nurse practitioner, management/Director of Nursing
Broader, more autonomous scope
Postgraduate study keeps paying off (qualification allowances and higher grades)
Three-year university degree — longer and more expensive
More study before you start earning as a nurse
Allowances you can claim
On top of base pay — the allowances most relevant to this role.
Uniform allowance$9.20/week (from Jan 2025)
Paid to full-time employees (pro-rata part-time, excluding casuals) required to wear a distinctive uniform/clothing item. $8.60 (2023) → $8.90 (2024) → $9.20 (2025). NOT…
Rural & Remote Service Incentive PaymentUp to $6,696.80/yr (Zone 4, Yr 5, from Jan…
Annual incentive paid fortnightly to nursing/midwifery staff at sites in Zones 2, 3 or 4, escalating by year of service (Years 1–5; nothing after the 5th year in a…
Rural & Remote — one-off incidental (relocation) paymentZone 2 $502 / Zone 3 $668 / Zone 4 $837 (from…
A one-off incidental payment paid when you take up an appointment at a Zone 2, 3 or 4 site, on top of the annual Zone incentive. From first full pay period on/after 1…
Salary packaging~$11,660/yr tax-free
As a public-hospital employee you can package about $9,010 of everyday expenses plus ~$2,650 of meal entertainment FBT-free, plus a novated car lease — and it doesn't reduce any penalty or allowance.
Leave, study & the full conditions
Leave and study support (annual, parental, long-service, study leave, the career-break scheme), the overtime, minimum-break and on-call rules, and the complete allowance list apply across all South Australia nurse classifications — see the full South Australia nurse pay & conditions guide.