The Graduate Certificate in Primary Health Care (Child and Family Health Nursing) is an 18-unit program offered by the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Admission requirements

Applicants must normally hold an approved degree or equivalent qualification and must be registered nurses in Australia.

However, the Board may, under certain circumstances and subject to specific conditions, admit others who can show evidence of fitness for candidature

In addition, applicants must have a minimum of one year post-registration experience and must provide a supporting statement from their employer stating their willingness to facilitate the extended clinical practice components of the course within their workplace and/or provide evidence that an affiliated health agency will facilitate the clinical practice in a supernumerary capacity or nominate their requirement for university sourced professional experience placement.

Course aims

The Graduate Certificate in Primary Health Care (Child and Family Health Nursing) aims to:

  • facilitate development of specialised knowledge, skills attributes for application in a range of child and family health nursing environment

Learning outcomes 

On completion of this course students will be able to:

  • identify the key concepts related to working with children and their families. These include keeping children safe, growth and development, attachment theories and engaging with infants, children and families
  • contextualize working with children and their families in a broad primary health care framework
  • demonstrate the knowledge required to be able to support infants, children and their families to manage a range of parenting and child health issues
  • demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to practice at a beginning level in the specialist area of child and family health nursing in the community setting.

Program of study

To qualify for the Graduate Certificate in Primary Health Care (Child and Family Health Nursing) a student must complete 18 units as specified below with a grade of Pass or NGP or better in each topic.

The award of a grade of Fail (F) in the same topic on more than one occasion or in 9 units or more, or failure to complete the course within four consecutive semesters may constitute prima facie evidence of unsatisfactory progress for the purposes of the University''s Policy on Student Progress.

Except with permission of the Faculty Board:

  • no topic may be attempted more than twice
  • a student may not include a topic which repeats work previously undertaken.

Core - Year 1 topics

18 units comprising:

NURS8720  Primary Healthcare Constructs and Contexts (4.5 units)
NURS8824  Introduction to Working with Infants, Children and Families (4.5 units)
NURS8821  Health Management for Infants, Children & Young People (4.5 units)
NURS8823  Clinical Practice for Child and Family Health Nursing (PEP) (4.5 units)

Not all topics will be available in any given year or semester