Child and Adolescent Health Nursing

The Child and Adolescent Health Nursing specialisation is available to study as a graduate certificate and as part of the Master of Advanced Practice. It is suitable for registered nurses who are interested in the design and implementation of early-intervention strategies at the individual, family and community level. 

Key components include: 

•  child and adolescent health within the collaborative primary healthcare framework, and best practice sociocultural health support 
•  physical and psychosocial development of children aged 0 to 18 years within family, education and community environments 
•  applying the evidence-based community models of healthcare planning and clinical decision-making. 

Your learning will be consolidated with a clinical placement that includes interprofessional learning and collaboration. Prior to your clinical placement you’ll complete a five-day, pre-clinical skills workshop* at Curtin Perth. 

The Graduate Certificate in Child and Adolescent Health Nursing is offered as an online course studied on a part-time basis only. We recommend that you study one or two units per semester.

This Graduate Certificate is available in semester 1 and in semester 2. 

Note: This Graduate Certificate is not available to international students studying in Australia on a student visa.  

See our handbook for more course information. 

* There are no fees for this workshop. Students travelling to Perth to complete the workshop must arrange (and fund) their travel and accommodation. 

Why study

• Curtin is an industry-partnered university and we have designed this specialisation to meet the health sector’s need for advanced expertise in Child and Adolescent Health Nursing. 
• The graduate certificate for this specialisation is progressive in that you can choose to pause your postgraduate studies after gaining that qualification or continue studying for your master’s degree. 

How this course will make you industry ready

Currently Curtin University is the sole educational provider in Western Australia for this course. Curtin maintains close collaboration with agencies providing child and adolescent health services in the community, ensuring that the course materials are relevant and up to date.

Graduates from this course will have the clinical competencies to practise in child and adolescent health nursing across an extensive range of population groups.

What you'll learn

• identify and apply principles of primary health care into practice to maintain optimal wellbeing of the individual, family and community
• assess the environmental, physical and psychosocial aspects of the individual, family and/or community to determine and plan the health care needs within a community practice setting
• locate, extract and interpret relevant evidence and scientific literature
• communicate both verbally and written, in a way the individuals, family and professional colleagues can understand
• use appropriate technologies to practice community health nursing practice
• demonstrate ability in interdependent and self-directed learning
• incorporate learning opportunities in nursing practice
• recognise national and global community health issues and strategic health care directions; relate these to community nursing practice
• provide culturally aware and respectful health care provision to multicultural groups and Indigenous communities; demonstrate professional and ethical practice in community health nursing; work collaboratively within an interdisciplinary health care team