Overview
NURS 524: NP: Children’s Health is part of the Master of Nursing: Nurse Practitioner (MN-NP) degree and the Post-Masters Diploma: Nurse Practitioner (PMD-NP) program.
In NURS 524, you will develop the knowledge and skills required to provide health care to children from infancy through adolescence. This includes health promotion and wellness counselling for healthy children, management of common acute and chronic conditions, and appropriate referral for conditions requiring care by other health professionals. You will also examine key factors influencing child health, including immunization, accidental injury, child maltreatment, and child poverty.
Outline
NURS 524 is a paced course delivered over 13 weeks using a blended learning approach that combines asynchronous online learning and regular synchronous virtual sessions.
Course content focuses on the development of knowledge and skills required for the assessment and management of pediatric populations. Emphasis is placed on the following:
- Pediatric assessment, growth and development, and preventive care, including immunization and anticipatory guidance
- Health promotion, family-centered care, and client and caregiver education
- Pathophysiology and management of common acute and chronic conditions across pediatric body systems, including adolescent and gynecologic health considerations
- Pediatric pharmacotherapeutics and safe prescribing considerations
- Recognition and management of pediatric mental health concerns
- Identification and management of pediatric emergencies
- Consideration of social determinants of health and factors influencing child well-being, including injury prevention, child maltreatment, and child poverty
Learning outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Apply current recommendations for assessment, health promotion, and preventative screening of children;
- Examine the influence of child’s developmental stages on illness, injury, health promotion, anticipatory guidance needs, and provision of health care;
- Analyze and synthesize clinical data from multiple sources to inform diagnoses and management of pediatric clients, including health history, physical examination, and diagnostic findings, within the context of social determinants of health;
- Develop an appropriate plan of follow-up care including re-evaluating the plan of treatment together with the client and family;
- Recognize emergency and urgent presentations in children and initiate appropriate interventions;
- Assess and manage common acute, chronic, and complex pediatric health issues.
Evaluation
Assessment in NURS 524 consists of multiple course activities with assigned percentage weightings. Your final grade is based on overall performance across all required assessments. A variety of assessment approaches are used to evaluate achievement of the course learning outcomes.
| Activity | Weight |
| Participation activities | 10% |
| Assessments | 40% |
| Exams | 50% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Garzon, D., Dirks, M., Driessnack, M., Duderstadt, K., & Gaylord, N. (2023). Burns’ pediatric primary care (8th ed.). Elsevier. ISBN: 9780443110429
Other Materials
Textbooks and readings from other Nurse Practitioner courses will be used as appropriate.