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Course Outline

NUR740 Neonatal, Paediatric and Child Health Care

Course Coordinator:Nicholas Ralph (nralph@usc.edu.au) School:School of Health - Nursing

2026Trimester 2

Online

 Online You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement.

Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.

What is this course about?

Description

Clinical practice with children and their families is specialised. Practitioners work with diverse populations in a wide range of hospital and community settings. Evidence based practice requires expert judgement, and decision making in order to solve complex health issues and support optimal health outcomes for infants and children. You will develop your practice capability by learning how to expertly access, analyse, interpret and use healthcare data and critique common models of care to inform care planning and apply your understanding to common infant child and family healthcare contexts.

How will this course be delivered?

Activity Hours Beginning Week Frequency
Online
Online – Online asynchronous learning and teaching materials and options for lecturer and peer to peer collaborations, and lecturer and peer zoom drop ins. 3hrs Week 1 12 times

Course Topics

  • Informing practice: Child health indicators, infant and child development, health promotion, social determinants, data and evidence to support service planning, policy and policy development in child health
  • Contemporary models of care: Models of Care and approaches to child and family nursing care: Child and Family Centred Care, Family Partnerships and Circle of Security, Exploring consent and assent in caring for children and young people, psychosocial considerations and response to illness, children with acute illness and distress
  • Optimising child and family health and wellbeing: Attachment Theory, The Core Story, Understanding brain development, Supporting families and the transition to parenthood, cultural considerations in providing family support services
  • Health Care Settings: Contexts of child health care, the rights of children, considerations for mandatory reporting by professionals, communication

What level is this course?

700 Level (Specialised)

Demonstrating a specialised body of knowledge and set of skills for professional practice or further learning. Advanced application of knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts.

What is the unit value of this course?

12 units

How does this course contribute to my learning?

Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming...
1 Access, interpret and integrate data and evidence to inform clinical specialist practice in the context of children's health care Knowledgeable
2 Critique the assumptions underpinning current models of care in various contexts against evidence and best practice Creative and critical thinker
3 Investigate and apply theory and frameworks relevant to child and family health care to specific clinical settings to propose evidence based child and family centred approaches to practice Creative and critical thinker
Engaged
4 Apply principles and practices of academic writing and referencing. Ethical

Am I eligible to enrol in this course?

Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.

Pre-requisites

Enrolled in Program SC546, SC742 or SC723

Co-requisites

Not applicable

Anti-requisites

Not applicable

Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)

It is assumed that students will have completed an undergraduate nursing or midwifery program of study.

Microcredential Information

Not applicable

How am I going to be assessed?

Grading Scale

Standard Grading (GRD)

High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL).

Details of early feedback on progress

Students will be invited to upload and discuss assessment task 1 onto canvas for peer review and discussion prior to formal submission at the end of week 4.

Assessment tasks

Delivery mode Task No. Assessment Product Individual or Group Weighting % What is the duration / length? When should I submit? Where should I submit it?
All 1 Artefact - Creative Individual 25% 
250 - 300 words
 Week 4 Online Submission
All 2 Written Piece Individual 35% 
EOI = 250-300 words
Academic paper = 1500 words
 Week 8 Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check and in class
All 3 Case Study Individual 40% 
3000 - 4000 words
 Week 12 Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check
All - Assessment Task 1:Child Health Infographic/Health Bulletin and Summary
Goal: 
To gain skills in sourcing, analysing, interpreting and reporting on key child health indicators and critically appraise those in light of the evidence.
Product: Artefact - Creative
Authorship Statement:
Format: 
You will use relevant digital information technologies and national data services to locate, identify, describe, and present a single Child Health Indicator in the form of an Infographic or Health Bulletin. 
The intended audience is your health professional colleagues. You need to include a critical synthesis (by way of a 250-300 word written summary) of the Child Health Indicator, informed by the broader evidence to identify any implications for one of more areas of neonatal, paediatric or child health practice.
You are able to choose an indicator which is directly relevant to your current or proposed area of practice. Details on the format of the Infographic or health bulletin is available online. APA 7th Referencing Style expected.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1 
Quality of data and information sources
 1
2 
Analysis and interpretation of relevant data sources
 1
3 
Integration of data and evidence to inform professional practice in the context of children’s health care
 1 2
4 
Information literacy skills including: citations and sources used to support the analysis and proposal and formatting of citations and references
 1
5 
Application of the principles and practices of reflective and academic writing and referencing in the style appropriate to the discipline.
 4
6 
Ethical use of intellectual property.
 4
Generic Skills: 
Communication, Applying technologies, Information literacy
All - Assessment Task 2:'Expression of Interest' for a new clinical role: Part A EOI; Part B academic paper
Goal: 
The goal of this assessment task is to critically analyse a contemporary model of care used with infants, children and their families.
Product: Written Piece
Authorship Statement:
Format: 
Part A You will prepare a written 'Expression of Interest' (EOI) for a clinical position. The EOI will need to describe the health service setting and focus (for example, an acute neonatal or paediatric unit, rural outreach clinic, GP service or community child health service), and the client/patient population. For your selected healthcare setting you will describe the new clinical role, its purpose and scope and encompass a specific contemporary model of care as well as the requirements for its implementation for working with infants, children and their families. Part B You will provide an academic paper in which you will present an academic argument which fully articulates and critiques the selected model of care that underpins the EOI. APA 7th Referencing Style expected.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1 
Part A EOI: Academic writing style conventions
 2 3
2 
Part A EOI: Description of the new clinical role and its scope
 1
3 
Part A EOI: Model of care embedded in the description of the role, purpose, scope and requirements for
implementation
 3
4 
Part A EOI: Relevance of model of care embedded in EOI to the healthcare setting
 3
5 
Part B Background academic paper: Presentation and explanation of the proposed model of care including the application of relevant theory and principles
 2 3
6 
Part B Background academic paper: Justification of the proposed model of care in light of evidence
 2 3
7 
Part B Background academic paper: Application of the theory and principles of the model of care to the proposed healthcare setting and role
 2 3
8 
Part B Background academic paper: Academic writing style conventions
 1
9 
Part A & B. Application of the principles and practices of reflective and academic writing and referencing in the style appropriate to the discipline.
 4
10 
Part A & B. Ethical use of intellectual property.
 4
Generic Skills: 
Communication, Information literacy
All - Assessment Task 3:Clinical Scenario or Case Study report
Goal: 
The goal of this assessment task is to apply evidence and theory to a clinical scenario or case study to propose evidence based and best practice approaches to care.
Product: Case Study
Authorship Statement:
Format: 
You will negotiate with the course coordinator to self-select a relevant clinical scenario or case study from your clinical practice experience which requires care to be implemented. Alternatively, the teaching team will have a number of scenarios from which you can choose if you are not currently engaged in a clinical setting. 

You will investigate and propose an evidence based and best practice approach to practice for the chosen scenario or case. You will be required to discuss the background to the scenario or case, approach to care and rationale, implementation and evaluation of outcomes for the infant/child and their family. APA 7th Referencing Style.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1 
Analysis of the characteristics of the clinical scenario or case using health indicator and other
data sets
 1
2 
Application of theory and frameworks to the proposed approach to practice
 2
3 
Evidence based proposal to provide a best practice and child/family centred for care
 2
4 
Quality of sources to support argument
 3
5 
Application of the principles and practices of reflective and academic writing and referencing in the style appropriate to the discipline.
 4
6 
Ethical use of intellectual property.
 4
Generic Skills: 
Communication, Problem solving, Information literacy

Directed study hours

A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.

What resources do I need to undertake this course?

Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.

Prescribed text(s) or course reader

You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.

Required? Author Year Title Edition Publisher
Recommended Jennifer Fraser,Donna Waters,Elizabeth Forster,Nicola Brown 2022 Paediatric Nursing in Australia and New Zealand n/a Cambridge University Press

Specific requirements

It is recommended that you have reliable internet access. Please consult the UniSC website for information about the recommended computer, search engines and word processing software.

How are risks managed in this course?

Health and safety risks for this course have been assessed as low. It is your responsibility to review course material, search online, discuss with lecturers and peers and understand the health and safety risks associated with your specific course of study and to familiarise yourself with the University’s general health and safety principles by reviewing the online induction training for students, and following the instructions of the University staff.

What administrative information is relevant to this course?

Assessment: Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.

Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.

In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.

Assessment: Additional Requirements

Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment

Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale

Assessment: Submission penalties

Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.

The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty

Links to relevant University policy and procedures

For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:

  • Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
  • Review of Assessment and Final Grades
  • Supplementary Assessment
  • Central Examinations
  • Deferred Examinations
  • Student Conduct
  • Students with a Disability

For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching

Student Charter

UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.

General Enquiries

For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.  

For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: 

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