Applying for general nurse training has never been easier. That is not to say that it will be any easier to obtain a place as nursing has always been a much sought-after profession.

Last month, an advertisement appeared in the national papers listing the 12 nursing schools and the associated third-level colleges which are offering the new diploma course in nursing. Applications are made to a central application's centre, in Galway. This contrasts with the old system of applying to each training hospital separately.

However, there are still two methods of general nurse training in existence. Four general training hospitals - the Mater Hospital Dublin, James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, Co Louth, and Cork University Hospital - have yet to introduce the diploma.

Gerry Donnellan, deputy chief executive of the nursing board An Bord Altranais, says that the plan is have the college-associated diploma in all general training hospitals by the end of 1998. However, the pace of introduction has been faster than expected and all hospitals may be included in the diploma as early as next year.

The older course was an apprenticeship type model of training whereas the new model has academic accreditation, explains Joe Mullan, director of the diploma course in UCG.

He says that, in the new course, students spend 58 weeks in college and 86 weeks in a clinical setting over a period of three years. European legislation requires that not less than half the time is spent in clinical placement and not less than one third in an academic situation. In fact, the demands of the course are such that it will not fit into three academic years - it takes three calendar years.

Student nurses doing the college-associated course arc not paid a salary. Instead, they receive maintenance grants from the local health board or voluntary hospital and they have full student status.

On completion of the diploma, graduates may have the option of studying for one (academic) year to obtain a degree.

Mullan says that there are a number of advantages to the new course. Students are no longer part of the workforce in the clinical area.

"Their participation is alongside an adequate workforce to meet the demands of the area. They are participating to learn," he explains. The new course means nurses can now obtain a degree in the usual time of four years whereas, prior to this, they had to do a further three years in addition to their initial three-year training, he says.

Application forms for the new course are available from the Nursing Applications Centre, PO Box 118, Galway. Applicants must send an An self-addressed envelope and a 48p stamp. Completed forms must be returned by 5.00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22nd. One application form serves for all nursing schools with applicants listing schools in order of preference from one to 12.

A spokesperson for the Nursing Applications Centre says that all applicants who meet the minimum educational requirements will be called for interview. Students sitting the Leaving Certificate in June, will only be called if they are sitting, the correct subjects (see panel).

The first round of interviews will probably take place in the last week, in June and the first week in July. There will also be second interviews, for those who do well in the initial interview. Last year, when there were four hospitals and three universities offering the diploma, the Nursing Applications Centre received more than 3,000 applications for a total of 220 places.

POST-LEAVING Certificate courses are an increasingly popular route into nurse training. Some colleges combine pre-nursing with other studies such as childcare or community and health care, or they may allow students to repeat some Leaving Certificate subjects. For instance, the College of Commerce in Cork offers two pre-nursing courses. If students meet the Bord Altranais requirement they do a "straight" pre-nursing course; if they don't, they can follow a combined course which allows them to sit one or two Leaving Certificate subjects.

Gerry O'Connor, course co-ordinator, says that the success rate for both courses is good, with students obtaining places in both Irish and British colleges.

Nurse training and education does not end with State registration. There are a range of postgraduate options, including 18-month training programmes in psychiatry, mental handicap and paediatrics and two-year course in midwifery.

As degree-level entry becomes the norm, the status of nurses in hospital hierarchies - often a thorny issue - should change for the better and the range of postgraduate options may broaden even further.

Meanwhile, the public spotlight has focused on nurses as they have overwhelmingly rejected a recent pay deal and arc becoming increasingly militant in their demands for proper recognition of their professional status.

As the cap and traditional uniforms arc being laid aside in favour of trousers and bare heads, and matrons arc restyled as directors, nursing is losing its traditional designation as a "vocation" and increasingly being described as a profession.