6 Graduate Certificate in Nursing Online Courses

Specialisations

All specialisations contain the following core subject:

• Persuasive Communication

Advanced Practice

• Advanced Health Assessment
• Effective Clinical Governance
• Quality Use of Medicines in Practice

Leadership and Management

• Effective Clinical Governance
• Ethics and Health Management
• Leading and Managing in Health

Nursing Education

• Clinical Coaching
• Principles of Education for the Health Professional
• Teaching in Practice Settings

Subject descriptions

Effective Clinical Governance – The subject explores the development of clinical governance. Students apply principles of the framework to current issues in their own healthcare workplaces. The aim of a healthcare governance framework is to optimise client care via clear, high-quality individual and team practices. Students have the opportunity to create a plan of action for a project to improve client care within their own health organisation.

Ethics and Health Management – Students contemplate ethical principles and theories, exploring how managers may apply these in a healthcare setting. You also examine the role of professional codes of ethics and human rights statements when determining what constitutes ethical practice. Ethical theory is applied to everyday issues encountered by healthcare managers. The goal is to enhance the ethical standing of a manager's own practices as well as those of others in the workplace.

Leading and Managing in Health – Students explore foundation concepts for leading and managing in different healthcare settings and locations. Students are required to place theories and strategies within the context of their own workplaces, with the goal of extending and enhancing leadership and management skills. Topics include staffing management; enacting change; enhancing quality; strategy and operations planning; using multi-source data to inform decisions; and practical ways to promote professional resilience in the role of a healthcare leader.

Persuasive Communication – In this subject, students examine professional communication strategies across multiple mediums that healthcare professional use in the workplace. You will also learn digital communication and increase your digital literacy. Developing persuasive argument is also part of the course.

Complete any four of the following subjects:

• Contemporary Mental Health
• Acute Mental Health
• Mental Health in Community, Non-government and Private Settings
• Mental Health Across the Lifespan
• Physical Healthcare in Mental Health
• Supporting Behaviour Change in Mental Health Contexts

All courses include the following core subject:

• Specialty Clinical Practice

Advanced Nursing

• Applied Pathophysiology in Practice
• Evidence for Informing Practice
• Improving Safety and Quality in Healthcare

Critical Care

• Applied Pathophysiology in Practice​
• Complex Critical Care​
• Professional Practice in Critical Care​

Mental Health

• Collaborative and Integrative Mental Health Care
• Leading Health and Social Care
• Trauma-informed Care and Practice

Nursing Education

• Creating a Culture of Teaching and Learning in Healthcare
• Designing Innovative Learning

Plus one of:

• Learning and its Trajectories
• Strategic Learning in Workplaces

Learning outcomes for the Advanced Practice specialisation include being able to:

• Apply the principles of Quality Use of Medicines to practice
• Apply clinical governance principles to achieve quality and safety in healthcare
• Demonstrate clinical reasoning and decision making appropriate to your scope of practice
• Use advanced communication strategies to handle challenging conversations and relationships.

Graduates of the Leadership and Management specialisation should be able to:

• Explain methods to maintain resilience in professional healthcare employment
• Deliver health services while conforming to ethical requirements, both regulated and moral
• Use a principles-based approach to achieve high standards of quality and safety in healthcare
• Communicate persuasively when establishing team expectations, standards and goals.

For Nursing Education, graduates should be able to:

• Apply education and adult learning theories to teaching in healthcare contexts
• Plan, develop, implement and evaluating teaching in healthcare environments
• Facilitate clinical learning and manage challenging coaching situations
• Use digital platforms and persuasive communication principles in the healthcare workplace.

Learning outcomes for the SCU Online Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Nursing include that you:

• Are a well-rounded mental health professional after being introduced to core knowledge and skills for holistic mental health treatment
• Have a contemporary understanding of emerging trends in mental health care by learning from clinically active academics
• Possess evidence-based practice skills that can be applied immediately in a practice or hospital setting.

Advanced Nursing
You'll build advanced skills in leadership, clinical nursing practice, applied pathophysiology, and implementing evidence in nursing.

Critical Care
Students gain skills to manage and care for people with life-threatening conditions, injuries and complications using therapeutic interventions. You'll develop an understanding of essential critical care concepts and be able to confidently evaluate complex patient data to inform clinical decision-making.

Mental Health
Students build specialist skills to navigate mental health care and lead teams that provide advanced and holistic clinical practice. You'll develop a thorough understanding of trauma-informed and recovery-focused care.

Nursing Education
You'll gain knowledge, skills and strategies for improving learning in healthcare setting, from the perspectives of both instructors and learning facilitators. By exploring many facets of nursing education, graduates build a toolkit of methods to support nursing professional development.

To be eligible for the JCU Online Graduate Certificate of Nursing, you need:

• a Bachelor of Nursing or equivalent qualification;
• registration as a Registered Nurse (Division 1) or Registered Midwife with AHPRA or equivalent foreign registration for applicants outside Australia; and
• at least one year clinical experience as a registered nurse.

Applicants from non-English speaking backgrounds need to meet English language proficiency requirements. Online programs are unavailable to student visa holders.

Tuition fees are $2,850 per subject in 2022. FEE-HELP is available.

To qualify for admission into the SCU Online Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Nursing, you must be a Registered Nurse (Division 1) AND have access to mental health nurse practice or practitioners during your course of study AND be proficient in English.

Tuition fees are $2,500 per unit in 2022. FEE-HELP available.

Online courses are unavailable to international students on student visas.

Advanced Nursing
Registration as a nurse in Australia AND currently employed in a healthcare setting AND at least one year of post-registration clinical experience AND a recognised nursing academic qualification.

Critical Care
A recognised nursing academic qualification OR recent relevant work experience in a clinical healthcare role. Applicants without a recognised nursing academic qualification will need to present evidence of their capacity to complete tertiary study.

Mental Health
Currently employed in a healthcare setting AND at least one year of post-graduate clinical experience AND a recognised nursing academic qualification or can demonstrate a capacity to complete tertiary study based on prior learning and experience.

Nursing Education
A bachelor's degree (or equivalent or evidence of sufficient academic ability) plus one of: (a) Registered as a health care professional in Australia (AHPRA) (b) Current employment in a health and social care environment (shown in CV) or (c) 12+ months of full-time (1800+ hours) post-registration clinical experience (shown in Statement of Service).

Course fees are $2,670 per subject in 2022. FEE-HELP available.