Professional Certificate of Rural Nursing Practice

Developed by La Trobe Rural Health School in response to the Australian Government’s Skills Priority list 2022, our Professional Certificate develops essential skills in health assessment and digital health for rural nurses.

Whether you’re a new or established registered nurse, this flexible and self-paced online short course will advance or refresh your nursing assessment skills across the lifespan, while providing in-demand skills to design, implement and use digital health applications to improve patient-centred care. All course content is designed to address the unique challenges of providing health care in rural areas.

By completing this certificate, you will:

• gain technical health assessment skills for paediatric, adult and older people, including primary and secondary assessments, ABG, X-ray and ECG analysis, care planning, risk assessment, monitoring, documentation and detection of deterioration
• learn transferrable employability skills in teamwork, leadership, communication and situational awareness so you can provide collaborative and effective nursing care
• learn how to design and implement digital health approaches across a range of healthcare settings
• understand the principles of digital security and health innovation applications to protect business and patient confidentiality
• gain a deeper understanding of the functionality and capability embedded in digital health solutions
• learn how to effectively communicate and collaborate across the digital health industry
• develop knowledge of current and emerging digital health trends including simulated practical application of digital health records, clinical decision support (CDS) systems, telehealth, mobile apps and wearable technologies, health informatics and big data, the internet of medical things (IoMT) and artificial intelligence (AI)
• understand digital health policies and guidelines in relation to privacy, security, data sharing and interoperability
• understand ethical principles of data sharing and your responsibilities in the digitally enabled healthcare system.

Successful completion of the certificate gives you credit towards La Trobe’s Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma of Rural Nursing Practice.¹

In line with the Australian Government’s priorities, scholarships for the Professional Certificate are available to cover your fees² or, if you’re a nurse living or working in a regional, rural or remote area (MMM2-7), you can access the course at a heavily discounted price.

Course content

This course is delivered fully online, so it easily fits in with your work and life commitments. Content is self-paced via La Trobe’s Learning Management System (LMS). Learners will receive support via webinars, Zoom drop-in sessions and email correspondence or online forums with academic leads.

Learning outcomes

After completing the Professional Certificate, you will be able to:

• evaluate comprehensive health assessment of paediatric, adult and older persons in diverse contexts
• integrate assessment and diagnostic findings to make informed clinical decisions, to prioritise care and management, and complete appropriate documentation
• evaluate risk and appropriately respond to the deteriorating patient
• adapt non-technical skills such as leadership, communication, teamwork, and situational awareness to provide effective collaborative nursing care for patients
• appraise the people, systems and process challenges impacting implementation of digital health in Australian rural health care settings
• evaluate strategies to improve confidence and skills in providing care and support using digital health, Artificial Intelligence applications and telehealth
• analyse the procedural, policy, legal, ethical, security and privacy requirements of registered nurses’ use of digital health
• evaluate the key consumer benefits and risks associated with digital health and critically analyse the use of digital health information including electronic health records
• review current digital health and telehealth guidelines and select appropriate supports to enhance culturally safe digital health and telehealth care.