Nganam­pa Health Coun­cil is look­ing for a child health nurse able to pro­vide care to chil­dren from birth to 15 years old on the APY Lands. The needs of this cohort include mon­i­tor­ing growth and devel­op­ment, immu­ni­sa­tion and health edu­ca­tion. As part of a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary team the child health nurse is respon­si­ble for ear­ly detec­tion, treat­ment and refer­ral of chil­dren iden­ti­fied with health concerns.

This is a per­ma­nent part time posi­tion, with a flex­i­ble fly in/​fly out ros­ter. Abil­i­ty to trav­el across the APY Lands is required. This involves spend­ing time on the APY Lands and trav­el­ling by 4WD vehi­cle between clin­ics. A work sched­ule of a min­i­mum of 26 – 32 weeks on the APY Lands will be negotiated.

Essen­tial requirements:

• Cur­rent Nation­al Police Clearance
• Cur­rent South Aus­tralian Work­ing with Chil­dren Check
• Cur­rent man­u­al driver’s license
• Cur­rent AHPRA reg­is­tra­tion as a Reg­is­tered Nurse
• Cur­rent Basic Life Sup­port Certificate
• Accred­it­ed Vac­cine Provider Certificate

Expe­ri­ence

• Pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence work­ing with chil­dren, young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies in remote Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties or oth­er sim­i­lar experience.
• Expe­ri­ence in use of CARPA STM pro­to­cols relat­ed to child health, for exam­ple man­age­ment of growth issues, anaemia, ear health, nor­mal development.
• Knowl­edge of pub­lic health, pri­ma­ry health care and mater­nal, child and youth health issues in Abo­rig­i­nal populations.

High­ly desirable:

• Knowl­edge of, and/​or expe­ri­ence with, health care issues affect­ing old­er chil­dren and adolescents 
• Expe­ri­ence in use of ado­les­cent screen­ing and risk assess­ment tools i.e. HEADSSS

Major Areas of Respon­si­bil­i­ty:
The NHC Child Health Pro­gram offers care to all chil­dren on the APY Lands from birth to 15years. Com­pre­hen­sive sur­veil­lance assists with ear­ly detec­tion, treat­ment and refer­ral of chil­dren iden­ti­fied with health con­cerns.

The child health pro­gram nurse:
• Works with NHC Doc­tors to com­plete & bill ATSI Child Health Checks for chil­dren 0 – 15years
• Assists with addi­tion­al child health checks by reg­is­tered nurs­es
• Pro­vides inter­ven­tions to man­age anaemia
• Fol­lows up Growth Action Plans for under and over­weight chil­dren
• Pro­vides immu­ni­sa­tions in the tar­get age group
• Con­tributes to clin­i­cal care in meta­bol­ic screen­ing path­ways for over­weight chil­dren
• Sup­ports ear, eye, den­tal health school pro­grams as required
• Pro­vides tar­get­ed for­mal devel­op­men­tal screen­ing using ASQ-Trak for chil­dren under 3years
• Sup­ports pae­di­atric out­reach vis­its as required
• Works close­ly with pro­gram coor­di­na­tor, child health team mem­bers and mid­wives
• Par­tic­i­pates in reg­u­lar child health team meet­ings
• Per­forms oth­er duties as direct­ed by the Child Health Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor

Pri­ma­ry Objec­tive:
To pro­vide clin­i­cal care to chil­dren from birth to 15 years with­in an evi­dence-based ser­vice deliv­ery mod­el to meet select­ed key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors for the Child Health Pro­gram. Clin­i­cal care focus­es on the pre­ven­tion, ear­ly detec­tion, and ear­ly inter­ven­tion of phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and social prob­lems affect­ing chil­dren from birth to 15 years, and their fam­i­lies.

Pro­gram Ser­vice Deliv­ery:
• To pro­mote the key action areas, goals and objec­tives of the Child Health Pro­gram as deter­mined by NHC Health Com­mit­tee
• To ensure opti­mal ser­vice deliv­ery in the Child Health Pro­gram areas of annu­al child health checks, growth mon­i­tor­ing, anaemia man­age­ment and oth­er areas as direct­ed by the Child Health Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor.
• To assist, strength­en and sus­tain the Child Health Pro­gram incor­po­rat­ing the use of best prac­tice guide­lines (e.g. CARPA Stan­dard Treat­ment Man­u­al and Women’s Busi­ness Man­u­al), clin­i­cal safe­ty, and cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate prac­tice.
• Liaise with the Child Health Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor, Women’s Health Out­reach nurs­es, Clin­i­cal Ser­vices Man­ag­er, Med­ical Direc­tor, Con­sul­tant Med­ical Offi­cer, clin­ic Med­ical Offi­cers, Chron­ic Dis­ease Nurse and oth­er NHC staff as required to ensure coor­di­nat­ed and focused ser­vice deliv­ery with­in the Child Health Pro­gram.
• Liaise with exter­nal ser­vice providers and oth­er stake­hold­ers rel­e­vant to the deliv­ery of the Child Health Pro­gram in con­sul­ta­tion with the Child Health Pro­gram Coordinator.

Qual­i­ty Improve­ment:
• In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Child Health Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor, par­tic­i­pate in the ongo­ing review and devel­op­ment of Child Health Pro­gram ini­tia­tives and ser­vice deliv­ery strate­gies, that con­tribute to strate­gic plan­ning, pro­gram and pol­i­cy devel­op­ment in rela­tion to child health on the APY Lands.

Per­for­mance Man­age­ment:
• To pro­mote an organ­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture that empha­sis­es qual­i­ty, safe prac­tice, con­tin­u­ous improve­ment and high performance.

Rel­e­vance to Strate­gic Plan
• Sus­tain best prac­tice clin­i­cal and pop­u­la­tion health ser­vices and pro­grams.
• Sus­tain and fur­ther devel­op com­pre­hen­sive mater­nal and child health ser­vice.
• Help to main­tain a com­pre­hen­sive inte­grat­ed elec­tron­ic Clin­i­cal Infor­ma­tion Sys­tem.
• Sup­port intro­duc­tion, where appro­pri­ate, of new med­ical tech­nolo­gies and e‑health solu­tions.
• Assist in main­tain­ing clin­i­cal accred­i­ta­tion.
• Use health infor­ma­tion to plan and eval­u­ate pro­grams and to report to fund­ing partners.

Spe­cial Con­di­tions
• This is a part-time posi­tion.
• Abil­i­ty to trav­el across the APY Lands will be required. Vis­its to all clin­ics will be required through­out each year. This will involve spend­ing time on the APY Lands on each vis­it and trav­el­ling by 4WD vehi­cle between clin­ics.
• A work sched­ule of a min­i­mum of 26 – 32 weeks on the APY Lands will be nego­ti­at­ed. Leave will be tak­en per the EBA and sched­uled dur­ing time off the lands
• Abil­i­ty to trav­el by light air­craft on occa­sion will be required.
• Some out of hour’s work may be required and time off in lieu is nego­tiable with­in set guide­lines.
• A six-month pro­ba­tion peri­od exists for all new appoint­ments. A review and assess­ment of suit­abil­i­ty for con­tin­u­ing employ­ment is con­duct­ed at that time.

Selec­tion Criteria

ESSEN­TIAL

Edu­ca­tion
• Reg­is­tered Nurse
• Cur­rent Basic Life Sup­port Cer­tifi­cate
• Accred­it­ed Vac­cine Provider Cer­tifi­cate

Expe­ri­ence
• Pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence work­ing with chil­dren, young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies in remote Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties or oth­er sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence.
• Expe­ri­ence in use of CARPA STM pro­to­cols relat­ed to child health, for exam­ple man­age­ment of growth issues, anaemia, ear health, nor­mal devel­op­ment.
• Knowl­edge of pub­lic health, pri­ma­ry health care and mater­nal, child and youth health issues in Abo­rig­i­nal pop­u­la­tions.

Per­son­al Skills
• Abil­i­ty com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly and work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with­in a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary health team in a cross cul­tur­al and com­plex envi­ron­ment.
• Abil­i­ty to trans­fer knowl­edge and skills through men­tor­ing, train­ing and sup­port­ive super­vi­sion.
• Abil­i­ty to work under Abo­rig­i­nal man­age­ment and con­trol.
• Good organ­i­sa­tion­al and ana­lyt­i­cal skills with atten­tion to detail.
• Abil­i­ty to be adapt­able and flex­i­ble with­in the work envi­ron­ment.
• Abil­i­ty to com­mit to the trans­fer of health skills to Anan­gu health work­ers and clients.
• High-lev­el com­put­er lit­er­a­cy and famil­iar­i­ty with/​ability to read­i­ly attain famil­iar­i­ty with data base main­te­nance.

DESIR­ABLE

Edu­ca­tion
• Post­grad­u­ate qual­i­fi­ca­tions, or work­ing towards same, in Pub­lic Health, Child Health or relat­ed field.
• Train­ing and expe­ri­ence in admin­is­ter­ing ASQ-Trak screen­ing tool or will­ing to under­take train­ing.

Expe­ri­ence
• Pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence as a Remote Area Nurse.
• Proven abil­i­ty to work effec­tive­ly in a cross-cul­tur­al organ­i­sa­tion­al set­ting.
• Knowl­edge of, and/​or expe­ri­ence with, health care issues affect­ing old­er chil­dren and adolescents

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion: con­tact Lynette Byers. 

Email: lynette.​byers@​palya.​org.​au or phone 0498 880 179.

Clos­ing Date: 31 May 2025