Welcome to Week 1

This course has been designed to build your confidence and knowledge in assessing the newborn baby. Together, we’ll show you how to prepare for and conduct this important examination.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Assess the gestational age of the newborn.
• Perform a newborn assessment using a systematic head to toe approach, interpreting both normal and abnormal characteristics.
• Discuss the benefits of parental and newborn bonding.

Meet the team

Dr Elizabeth Forster (left) and Dr Victoria Kain (right) ©Griffith University

As the lead educators for this course, we would like to warmly welcome you on this journey. Both of us are neonatal/paediatric nurses, with many years experience caring for newborns and working with parents. We are so excited to share our knowledge with you.

Both of us teach and carry out research in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Griffith University. You can find out more about us below, and select our profile links, to follow us on FutureLearn.

We look forward to meeting you in the course discussions.

Dr Victoria Kain It’s great to bring this course to healthcare professionals and parents alike. Empowering parents with knowledge is so important. Recently, I returned from Africa where I taught the Helping Babies Breathe program to midwives and nurses in Rwanda. It was a humbling and rewarding experience and I encouraged my new colleagues to take this course, too! I love sharing my knowledge about neonatal care, and learning from others along the way

Dr Elizabeth Forster Newborns are a paradox, vulnerable and yet resilient. To be responsible for their care is perhaps one of the most significant roles I have undertaken in my nursing career. I cared for many sick and critically ill newborns during my paediatric nursing practice and supported parents during this incredibly stressful time. I have spent over a decade teaching and preparing paediatric and child health nurses to work with infants, children, adolescents and families. It is wonderful to be able to share my experience and expertise with you over the coming weeks.