The Graduate Diploma in Nursing (Child and Family Health) is a 36-unit course 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 Diploma in Nursing (Child and Family Health) aims to:

  • facilitate development of specialised knowledge, skills and attributes for application in child and family health environments
  • extend student knowledge in research for practice development

Learning outcomes 

In addition to the Learning Outcomes of the Graduate Diploma in Nursing, on completion of this course, students in the child and family health nursing specialisation 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;
  • contextualise working with children and their families in a broad primary health care
    framework;
  • develop the knowledge required to be able to support infants, children and their families to manage a range of parenting and child health issues;
  • identify and critique information required to be able to promote the health and wellbeing of infants and children being raised in circumstances that render them vulnerable;
  • demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and skills on how to affect social and behavioural change to improve the health of infants, children and families within communities; and
  • demonstrate clinical competency at an advanced level in the special area of child and family health nursing in community settings.

Program of Study

To qualify for the Graduate Diploma in Nursing (Child and Family Health) a student must complete 36 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.

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

Specialisation - Child and Family Health - Core topics

31.5 units comprising:

NURS8821  Health Maintenance for Infants, Children and Young People  (4.5 units)
NURS8720  Primary Health Care Constructs and Contexts (4.5 units)
NURS8823  Clinical Practice for Child and Family Health Nursing  (4.5 units)
NURS8824  Introduction to Working with Infants, Children and Families  (4.5 units)
NURS8825  Working with Vulnerable Families  (4.5 units)
NURS8826  Advanced Clinical Practice for Child and Family Health Nursing  (4.5 units)
NURS8827  Working in Communities for Children and Families  (4.5 units)

Core - Year 1 topics

4.5 units comprising:
NURS9219  Introduction to Research (4.5 units)