Course description
In this course, students explore the nurse’s role as a member of an interprofessional team caring for childbearing and child-rearing families, infants, children, and adolescents. Students build on previous learning, integrating the core curriculum concepts and content from the semester's theory and health assessment courses. This course provides the theory required to provide safe, ethical, competent, compassionate, and evidence-informed care for clients experiencing developmental transitions or health challenges in a maternity and pediatric context. A family-centred perspective and the integration of teaching and learning principles for health promotion and illness/injury prevention are emphasized. Students complete one half of the semester in maternity and the other half in pediatrics.
Course content
Maternity and Pediatrics
- Selected emerging health trends/issues/challenges
- Nutrition
- Interprofessional Collaboration
- Health promotion
- Evidence-based practice
- Social determinants of health
- Family-centered care
- Cultural safety, humility, and anti-racist practices
- Trauma and violence-informed practices
- Teaching and learning theory application and strategies
Maternity
Reproductive Health
- Genetics
- Conception
- Sexual health
- Family planning
Pregnancy - Antepartum
- Fetal Development
- Fetal well-being
- Maternal physiological, psycho-social, and emotional changes
- Prenatal care
- Healthy beginnings
Pregnancy - Intrapartum
- Maternal physiological, psycho-social, and emotional changes
- Labor
- Fetal assessment
- Delivery/Birth
- Cesarean section (peri-operative)
Pregnancy - Postpartum
- Maternal physiological, psycho-social, and emotional changes
- Assessment and care
- Discharge planning and teaching
- Childbearing families – role transitions
Pediatrics
Growth and Development
Infants, Children, and Adolescents
- Anatomical and physiological differences between adults and children
- Physiological variations and nursing management
- Communicable diseases
- Immunization
- Child safety
- Illness and injury prevention
- Communication
Pharmacology
- Developmental pharmacology/ontogeny
- Pediatric medication calculations
Pain
- Assessment in infants, children, and adolescents
- Culturally safe pain assessment
- Pharmacological management
- Non-pharmacological management
Vulnerability
- Separation
- Fear and anxiety
- Trust
- Atraumatic care and psychosocial needs
- Abuse and neglect
- Legal and ethical issues in pediatrics (e.g., informed consent, confidentiality, decision-making)
Learning activities
Faculty will facilitate the student's integration of nursing theory and promote the development of critical inquiry, clinical reasoning and judgment through learning activities such as lectures, group discussions, client-based scenarios, and using electronic resources.
Means of assessment
This is a graded course, and the means of assessment are consistent with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. The instructor's course outline will be available to students by the first class and list the evaluative components of the course.
Learning outcomes
Upon the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Synthesize knowledge to formulate client-centred nursing decisions for the provision of safe, competent, ethical, compassionate, and evidence-informed care for childbearing and child-rearing families, infants, children, and adolescents;
- Examine health issues and trends relevant to pediatric and maternity populations through critical inquiry, reflection, and analytical reasoning;
- Employ a relational perspective to explore how childbearing and child-rearing families' experiences are contextually situated;
- Apply theories of growth and development and teaching and learning principles to promote health and prevent illness/injury for clients;
- Describe the role of the nurse within an interprofessional team working with pediatric and maternity clients and their family members;
- Demonstrate awareness of how family-centered care informs nursing practice with childbearing and child-rearing families.
Textbook materials
The instructor's course outline will be available to students by the first class and list the required textbooks and materials that students must purchase.