Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Early Parenting

Credit Points: 12.00

Flexible Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
NURS2222	Bundoora Campus	Postgraduate	173H School of Health and Biomed	Face-to-Face	PGRDFlex25 (All)

Course Coordinator: Leanne Sheeran

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99257445

Course Coordinator Email: leanne.sheeran@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Availability: Email for appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

To be eligible to enrol in this course you must hold current registration with AHPRA as both a Nurse and a Midwife, as this course leads to clinical practice experience.

Enforced Pre-Requisite Courses 

Successful completion of the following courses: Nil

Note: it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course. 

For information go to RMIT Course Requisites webpage. 

Required Concurrent Study 

None

Course Description

This course explores the diversity of families and the challenges of early parenting. It begins by critiquing the public health concepts of primary healthcare and health promotion. The diversity of contemporary families raising children in Australia are explored and family assessment models are contrasted. The transition to parenting is examined including, key developmental stages and early parenting concerns such as sleep and settling. Contemporary issues impacting families are assessed such as the role of fathers, Indigenous health, LGBTQI+ families and disability There is a particular focus on cultural safety and family violence including family violence screening and management.

Early parenting challenges are also explored in terms of child and family nutrition. The course facilitates learning about the skills needed to assess, support, and manage breastfeeding issues for mothers and babies. Nutrition requirements for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, families, and communities are critically assessed and synthesised. The importance of assessing growth, determining variations from normal, interim management and referral for medical or dietician review as appropriate are investigated. Communication skills to sensitively explore and respond to family concerns or nutrition practices are critically examined and practiced in skills sessions for community consultation.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course will contribute to Program Learning Outcomes for GD159 Graduate Diploma in Child and Family Health Nursing through the following learning outcomes: 

PLO1: Communicate in an effective, sensitive and culturally appropriate way to engage and support families, young children and groups from diverse backgrounds in a partnership approach.

PLO2: Demonstrate responsibility and accountability for professional decisions and resolves challenges through application of critical thinking, reflective practice and continuing professional development in maternal and child health practice 

PLO6: Demonstrate the ability to generate and evaluate solutions to all aspects of professional maternal and child health nursing practice while complying with ethical, legal and regulatory standards.

PLO7: Apply the principles and methods of scientific inquiry and research and incorporate this information into your professional evidence-based practice.

On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:  

1. Explore and critique the concepts of primary health care, health promotion, cultural safety and family assessment as they apply to contemporary families and raising children in Australian society.
2. Examine and synthesise knowledge of parenting tasks as they relate to the transition to parenting, key developmental stages and early parenting concerns. 
3. Analyse the contemporary impacts on early parenting, such as the role of fathers, cultural diversity, LGBTQI+ families, Indigenous health and disability while exploring issues such as grief and loss, perinatal mental health, and family violence using an evidence based approach
4. Apply advanced knowledge of breastfeeding and human lactation using cognitive and technical skills to assess and manage key maternal and infant breastfeeding issues. 
5. Synthesise assessment findings related to nutrition and child growth parameters and sensitively explore management strategies
6. Critically examine, promote and communicate evidence-based nutrition practices for infants, young children and families in community child and family settings.

Overview of Learning Activities

You will be actively engaged in a range of learning activities such as lectorials, tutorials, practicals, simulation based learning, seminars, project work, class discussion, individual and group activities and self directed learning.. Delivery is a mix of both face to face and online learning.

RMIT have state of the art simulated learning facilities for student learning and practice. You will participate in simulated practice within these facilities in preparation for placement. As a part of participation you may be filmed for learning, teaching, reflection and assessment and this is considered an inherent part of our learning and teaching program. Recordings will be maintained in accordance with our assessment, document retention and privacy policies.

You are encouraged to be proactive and self-directed in your learning, asking questions of your lecturer and/or peers and seeking out information as required, especially from the numerous sources available through the RMIT library, and through links and material specific to this course that is available through myRMIT Studies Course.

Overview of Learning Resources

Learning materials will be delivered via Canvas and face to face interactions. Canvas will be used for online collaboration and to direct students to resources they can access asynchronously.

RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through myRMIT Studies Course.

There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.

Overview of Assessment

This course contains hurdle requirements. All hurdle requirements for this course are indicated clearly in the assessment regime that follows, against the relevant assessment task(s) and all have been approved by the College Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching).

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task 1: Nutrition Assessment
Weighting 20% 
This assessment task supports CLOs  4, 5, 6  

Assessment Task 2: Family Assessment
Weighting 50% 
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2, 3,

Assessment Task 3: Health Promotion Assessment
Weighting 30% 
This assessment task supports CLO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or Equitable Learning Services if you would like to find out more.