New child health masters launched.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is launching a new programme for nurses and other child health professionals. The interdisciplinary programme is a child- and family-centred clinical programme, which will focus on the health outcomes/management of the child/ family. Senior lecturer in the university's health care practice division, Annette Dickinson, said the interdisciplinary model was more than just learning alongside each other; it was about learning together and creating "connecting conversations" between each discipline to ensure the best outcomes for the child and family. This would enable health professionals from a wide range of disciplines to develop their knowledge and skills together, reflecting the contemporary nature of child health care environment in which most would practise.

Available throughout the country

The programme is designed to meets the needs of practitioners balancing career and personal commitments, by enabling health professionals to study on-line and on campus. It will be accessible to students throughout the country and, at the same time, allow them to meet the programme requirements of continuing clinical practice, she said. Within the programme, which will be available part- and full-time, students can gain a postgraduate certificate and a postgraduate diploma in health science and a master of health practice in child health.

Students will be able to choose from a range of papers, eg children in context, management of children with acute illness, chronic illness and disability in childhood, primary health care, mother and baby nutrition and/or use a special topic paper to follow an area of specialist child health practice.

"The programme has been developed in consultation with clinical and educational leaders both nationally and internationally and offers an exciting new post graduate pathway for child health professionals wishing to extend and develop their clinical practice," Dickinson said. An external reviewer of the programme Sharon Sire, professor and chair, Family Health Nursing Department at Indiana University School of Nursing in the United States, said the programme managed to incorporate cultural safety, the nature of interdisciplinary work, philosophical and clinical reasoning, all while keeping children's interests and needs at the centre.

The programme is in the process of final approvals and, subject to approval, will be offered from the first semester next year. For further information, contact Annette Dickinson, [e-mail].