Graduate Certificate in Primary Care Nursing

This subject focuses on the role of the primary care nurse in providing patient centred care to individuals with diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive airways disease, hypertension and heart failure. The course content includes the pathophysiology of these common conditions and the common pharmacological agents used in treatment. The Primary Care system in Australia is explained and the systems and evidence based management principles explored with a focus on working within a multidisciplinary framework.

This subject will explore the theory and practice of health promotion and illness prevention in primary care. It will discuss the social model of health that recognises that a range of social, cultural and economic factors influence people’s health and well-being. It will focus on weight, diet, and exercise as well as on smoking and other risk behaviours and their impact on health. It will also prepare students to undertake health assessments. Strategies for empowering individual patients and communities to maintain a healthy lifestyle will be explored.

This subject focuses on the role of the primary care nurse in providing patient centred care within the context of chronic disease management. The lived experience of patients with chronic conditions is explored alongside the scope of nurse practice in the provision of clinical care, psychosocial support and patient education within a multidisciplinary framework. This subject builds on the knowledge of the pre-requisite subject, NURS90104 Chronic Disease Management: Foundations, and assists nurses in promoting chronic disease self-management based on the chronic care model.

This subject meets the curriculum content requirements of the National Immunisation Education Framework for Health Professionals. It focuses on the theory and practical components of adult and childhood immunisations and includes:
•an overview of the public health issues related to immunisation
•clinical issues relevant to nurses providing immunisation including vaccines included in the National Immunisation Program
•the storage and handling of vaccines including cold chain management
•regulatory requirements relating to the administration of vaccines by registered nurses.

In addition to this the content will include preventive aspects of travel health including social and environmental risks to the traveller.

This is a public health and clinical subject for health professionals working or hoping to work in the area of sexual and reproductive health. It covers the following topics: sexually transmissible infections and blood borne viruses (prevention and screening, diagnosis and treatment), contraceptive choices for women during their reproductive life and the theory and rationale behind the screening for cervical cancer. This subject is focused on the clinical and practical aspects of providing sexual and reproductive health clinical services within the Australian health care setting.

Students who are Division 1 nurses and have current registration in Australia and who complete this subject successfully are able to undertake additional training to become accredited as nurse cervical screening providers and accredited HIV and Hep C test advisors.

This clinical accreditation is not part of the subject but can only be undertaken when this subject has been completed. This additional training is run by by Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, not the University of Melbourne.

This subject explores two main themes:
1. The social construction of sexuality - how our understandings of sexuality are developed in socio-cultural contexts; and
2. Sexual health - how it is defined and measured, what factors contribute to it, and practical issues to consider when interacting with adolescents and trying to have an impact on their sexual health and wellbeing.

This subject introduces and critiques the concepts ‘adolescence’ and ‘health’, and examines various frameworks for understanding the phenomenon of adolescent development. The diversity of adolescent experience is explored, and the impact of various socio-environmental contexts of adolescence on young people’s health and well-being is identified.

This subject is designed to provide the theoretical foundation for entry into specialist mental health nursing practice. Students will explore the legal, policy and ethical frameworks, within which mental health care is provided. Students will extend their understanding of bio-psycho-social factors, related to mental health and illness and to the nosology within diagnostic structures of psychiatry.

This subject is designed to develop assessment skills for beginning specialist mental health nursing practice. Skills from Mental Health Nursing 1 will be incorporated with specialist communication skills. Consumer and family perspectives of needs, health and illness will be integrated in the processes of assessment and the investigation of models of care in multi-disciplinary settings. This specialist knowledge will be applied to nursing assessment and care planning, relevant to the range of high- and low-prevalence diagnostic groupings.

This subject enables students to examine factors influencing safety and quality of the healthcare system. Using safety and quality as a framework students will examine trends in critical incidents in healthcare that result in adverse outcomes for patients. The subject will also introduce students to emerging strategies in healthcare that seek to improve the safety and quality of patient care and to consider particular roles of nurses in leading these efforts at a clinical and organisational level.

This subject provides theoretical foundations for best practice in community-based mental health nursing. The focus of the subject is on role and function of the psychiatric nurse in the delivery of recovery focused care and treatment in a range of community settings. The subject emphasises the development of knowledge and skills required to organise and implement care of the seriously mentally ill across the lifespan, and introduces students to a variety of community resources and services necessary for the provision of immediate crisis, short term and ongoing care of the seriously mentally ill. A focus on recovery oriented care planning, relapse prevention, case management, and psychosocial rehabilitation underpins the core content of the subject. Students will critically examine concepts and principles of psychosocial rehabilitation and various models of community-based mental health care, including partnerships with primary health. The subject emphasises recovery focused approaches to mental health care, where the consumer is at the centre of all aspects of treatment planning and implementation.

This subject focuses on advanced nursing practice in primary care. The principles of professional practice will underpin all topics covered. The subject considers areas such as leadership in a multidisciplinary environment, initiating systems change, implementing evidence based practice and research to improve health outcomes and new models of comprehensive complex team care e.g. nurse-led clinics. Nurses will be assisted to develop a professional portfolio based on competency standards which can be used to satisfy the regulatory authorities continuing professional development requirements or to develop and substantiate advanced nurse practice when working towards Nurse Practitioner Endorsement.

This subject involves the theory and practice of sensitive women's health screening, including cervical, breast and bowel screening. Innovative teaching and learning techniques will be utilised with support from University academic staff and clinical preceptors (supervisors).

This subject addresses the impact of significant milestones across the lifecycle on women’s well-being and sense of self. It includes issues from adolescence, the childbearing years and parenting, the middle years, menopause and after. It aims to engender knowledge of the issues that impact on women’s health including depression and other mood disorders, body image, sexuality, abuse, work and family and aspects of loss and grief.

This subject provides an introduction to the fundamentals of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) from a public health perspective. Globally minded but locally focused, this subject examines the burden of disease associated with SRH and critically analyses significant factors of influence on SRH at the community and broader societal levels, including sexuality, violence, gender and sexual rights. Topics such as unmet need for contraception, fertility control, sex work and female cutting will also be covered. The development, implementation and evaluation of effective public health programs aimed at improving the SRH of communities will also be explored in the subject.

 This subject provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of HIV and STI prevention and control. The basic epidemiology of STIs and HIV is considered along with some of the relevant clinical characteristics of these infections. The subject also introduces the concept of core groups and its importance to transmission dynamics, explores the factors that influence STI and HIV control and examines the public health consequences of these infections. It also provides examples of interventions and programmes to prevent and control HIV and STIs and critically examines and analyses such programmes.

This subject is organised into the following themes:

1. Definitions and background (STI epidemiology, diagnosis and management)
2. Importance and impacts (public health implications and consequences; HIV and HIV/STI interaction)
3. Control and stakeholders (public health theory of control with examples; groups and networks of importance)
4. Prevention and health promotion (including individual health messaging, mass and social media campaigns)
5. Applications and program examples

This subject will provide a theoretical framework for understanding young people’s development and their health needs, health risk screening and assessment and brief intervention strategies for mild health risk behaviour. The linkage role of the practice nurse will also be covered including multidisciplinary care of high-risk youth with other local youth agencies. Medico-legal aspects of care with younger adolescents and helping the general practice be youth friendly will also be covered along with strategies for communicating with parents and adolescents.

All subject materials and readings are delivered online.