Maternal and Child Health Nurse Role in Victoria, Australia Report

This report delves into the multifaceted role of a maternal and child health nurse, emphasizing its significance in providing direct care, education, and management within the healthcare system. The report clarifies the distinction between primary care and primary health care, positioning the maternal and child health nurse role as a crucial component of primary health care due to its community-focused approach. It identifies the primary client group as mothers and children under six years old, highlighting postpartum hemorrhage as a significant health concern. The report then analyzes five key strategies from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, including developing personal skills, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, reorienting health services, and building healthy public policy, providing practical health promotion actions for each strategy in the context of maternal and child health nursing, such as educating mothers on safe delivery practices, maintaining clean environments, encouraging the use of maternal and child health services, promoting continuous professional development, and fostering collaborative efforts to address health issues. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of these strategies in improving maternal and child health outcomes.

Running head: Maternal and Child Health Nurse Role 1
“Maternal and Child Health Nurse in Victoria (Australia)”
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Features of the maternal and child health nurse role
The maternal and child health nurse role is of paramount importance in as much as
mothers, children and infants health is concerned. There are several features of this role some of
which include direct care provision, education role and managerial functions.
The maternal and child health nurse role involves direct care provision to mothers,
children and infants (Pillitteri, 2010). Pregnant mothers receive care throughout their pregnancy
period until safe delivery. The stages for direct care giving to pregnant mothers include antenatal
care, intranatal care, postnatal care and neonatal care. At all these stages, pregnant mothers
receive the appropriate maternal care until birth and the new born babies receive care until the
age of six years.
The maternal and child health nurse role also involves education (Perry et al, 2013).
Mothers and their families are educated on the proper heath standards either as group or
individually. Nurses under this role give information on maternal health, proper parenting,
appropriate nutrition for babies, immunization, family planning and breastfeeding among others.
Proper education enables pregnant mothers to stay safe, deliver well and take care of their
children accordingly.
The maternal and child health nurse role also involves managerial roles. Under this
role, a nurse acts as a coordinator between the mothers, family and the doctor. They also
maintain maternal clinics and nursing homes in good condition for safe delivery and care of
mothers and infants. They also manage the maternal and child health records. They as well assist
in research activities in the field of maternal and child health. They also keep the community
informed of various available maternal and child health services. Therefore, the maternal and

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child health nurse role is crucial since it ensures a healthy community.
Primary care and primary health care
Primary care and primary health care are terms which are used interchangeably but
they denote different concepts. Primary care is a narrower term which is based on the family and
doctor and involves the deliverance of primary care services to individuals (Valentijn et al,
2013). It actually involves the care for the community sick individuals. On the other hand,
primary health care is a broader term. It is an approach which is concerned about the health and
the well-being of the whole society (Macdonald, 2013). It deals with the preferences and needs
of communities, families and individuals and addresses the broader health determinants such as
the individual factors, social factors and environmental factors. Its major focus is on health
promotion, prevention and treatment of illnesses. Therefore, primary health care is broad since it
is concerned with the health problems of communities as compared to primary care which is
mostly concerned with the individual health problems (Kringos et al, 2010).
Why the Maternal and child health nurse role can be considered a Primary Health Care nursing
role
The maternal and child health nurse role can be considered to be a primary health
care nursing due to various reasons as explained. The maternal and child health nurses partner
with communities, families, individuals and other health professionals in their work in order to
prevent, promote, detect at earlier ages and intervene on well-being and health concerns of
children and their families (Rasanathan et al, 2011). The nurses under this role also educate
mothers either individually or as a group on the appropriate health standards to adopt for their
children such as parenting, nutrition, family planning, immunization and child safety among

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others. They also support families which may be experiencing various difficulties and inform the
entire society members of various available support services in their area. For instance, in
Victoria, the maternal and child health nurses deliver maternal and child service to all the
Victorian families free of charge for all children below six years of age. It is therefore evident
that the maternal and child health nurse role is focused on the whole society health problems as
well as the individual health problems and hence can be considered as a primary health care
nursing role which involves nurses, families, communities and other health professionals.
Characteristics of the Maternal and Child Health nurse likely client group
The likely client group for a maternal and child health nurse are the mothers and
children below the age of six years. Mothers can be categorised into to two groups namely the
pregnant and breast feeding mothers. Mothers require care right from the conception period to
birth to ensure a healthy baby is born. The required care by the mothers is characterized by the
antenatal care which is health care to pregnant mothers during their primary pregnancy stages,
intranatal care which involves the care activities aimed at ensuring safe delivery for pregnant
mothers, postnatal care which involves the care to mothers a week after child birth and neonatal
care which involves the care for a newborn baby (Tew, 2013). Children below the age of six
years also require care for their overall growth which is characterized by various activities such
as immunization, breast feeding, personal hygiene and detection of potential health problems and
treatment among others.
One common health issue for the client group
One common health issue for the identified client group is the Postpartum
haemorrhage. Postpartum haemorrhage occurs when a woman loses blood of 500ml after

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delivery (World Health Organization, 2012). Severe Postpartum haemorrhage occurs when blood
loss of 1000ml or more occurs (Elmir et al, 2012). Postpartum haemorrhage can further be
classified into two categories namely the primary Postpartum haemorrhage which occurs within
24 hours after delivery and secondary Postpartum haemorrhage which occurs between 24 hours
and 6 weeks after delivery. In Victoria, an average of 23.6% women experience Postpartum
haemorrhage while 1.4% experience severe Postpartum haemorrhage (Flood et al, 2018).
Postpartum haemorrhage has been an issue of major concern in as much as maternal and child
health is concerned not only in Victoria but also worldwide since it is the major cause of
maternal death.
Five strategies for action identified in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
“Develop personal skills”
This strategy action is based on the fact that health promotion supports personal and
also the social development through provision information, health education and life skills
enhancement (Hou, 2014). This enables people to take more control over their health and make
choices which are conducive to their health.
“Create supportive environments”
This strategy states that any health promotion strategy action should address the
natural resources conservation and environment protection (Mcqueen & De Salazar, 2011). A
health promotion strategy should generate environmental conditions which are conducive, safe
and enjoyable by the entire society.
“Strengthen community action”

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This health promotion strategy action aims at developing systems which are flexible
in order to encourage the public participation towards the matters of health direction (Potvin &
Jones, 2011). This is possible through the utilization of the available human and material
resources in the community in order to enhance self-help among the community members.
“Reorient health services”
This promotion health strategy action is based on the fact that health professionals,
governments, individuals, community groups and health services institutions should share
responsibilities and work in unity to attain a health care system which contributes towards health
pursuit (Catford, 2011). It emphasizes health research attention and training and professional
education changes in order to refocus on individuals as a whole.
“Build healthy public policy”
This action strategy states that a health promotion policy involves a combination of
diverse approaches which complement each other in order to attain healthier public services and
an enjoyable environment.
Healthy promotion action related to “Develop personal skills”
The maternal and child health nurse should take the action of educating pregnant
mothers and their families on the importance of being attended to by skilled attendants who have
the necessary skills in preventing and controlling bleeding during delivery. This action is related
to the health promotion strategy since it seeks to provide information to pregnant mothers about
safe delivery by skilled attendants. It is also related to the nurse role selected since it is
addressing maternal health about safe delivery to avoid Postpartum haemorrhage. It also relates

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to the identified clients since it is addressing pregnant women about safe delivery.
Healthy promotion action related to “Create supportive environments”
Maternal and child health nurse should take the action of maintaining a clean
environment by ensuring maternal clinics are clean and providing the necessary information to
mothers experiencing Postpartum haemorrhage such as proper use and disposable of pads
(Mousa et al, 2014). This action is related to the health promotion strategy since it supports the
conservation of environment. It’s also related to the selected nurse role since it addresses the
conservation of environment by mothers who may be experiencing Postpartum haemorrhage. It
also relates to the identified clients since it seeks to address the proper means of maintaining a
clean environment by mothers experiencing Postpartum haemorrhage such as proper use and
disposal of pads. Healthy promotion action related to “Strengthen community action”
The maternal and child health nurse should take the action of encouraging the
expectant mothers or rather new parents to make use maternal and child health services. For
instance, the maternal and child health services are free in maternal and child health services are
free in Victoria for families which children under six years of age and hence all Victorians within
the stated gap should be encouraged to utilize them. This action is related to the health promotion
policy since it encourages families with children under six years of age to participate in maternal
and child health services for healthy development of mothers and children. It’s also related to the
nurse role selected since it targets mothers who have just become new parents or have delivered
and are prone to Postpartum haemorrhage. It’s also related to the nurse clients as it is addressing
mothers who have just delivered and those with children below six years of age.
Healthy promotion action related to “Reorient health services”

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The action which should take the action of studying and training regularly in order
to be updated on the modern ways of preventing and treating Postpartum haemorrhage. This
action is related to the health promotion strategy action since it encourages regular training for
maternal and child health nurses to be well versed with modern means of preventing Postpartum
haemorrhage. It’s also related to the nursing role identified health issue since it suggests training
alteration for nurses under the identified role to be able to prevent and treat Postpartum
haemorrhage. It also relates to the client group since it seeks to improve the prevention and
treatment of Postpartum haemorrhage by equipping maternal and child health nurses with
updated skills.
Healthy promotion action related to “Build healthy public policy”
The maternal and child health nurse should take the action of working together with
families, individuals, communities and other health professionals to prevent and treat Postpartum
haemorrhage. This action relates to the health promotion strategy action since it involves the
views of different parties jointly addressing a common health issue. It also relates to the
identified health issue since it seeks the views of different parties towards preventing and treating
the health issue. It also relates to the client group as its major aim is preventing and treating
Postpartum haemorrhage which is experienced by mothers after delivery.

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References
Catford, J. (2011). Ottawa 1986: back to the future.
Elmir, R., Schmied, V., Jackson, D., & Wilkes, L. (2012). Between life and death: women’s
experiences of coming close to death, and surviving a severe postpartum
haemorrhage and emergency hysterectomy. Midwifery, 28(2), 228-235.
Flood, M., Pollock, W., McDonald, S. J., & Davey, M. A. (2018). Accuracy of postpartum
haemorrhage data in the 2011 Victorian Perinatal Data Collection: Results of a
validation study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, 58(2), 210-216.
Hou, S. I. (2014). Health education: theoretical concepts, effective strategies and core
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Kringos, D. S., Boerma, W. G., Hutchinson, A., Van der Zee, J., & Groenewegen, P. P. (2010).
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