Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing
2025 Deakin University Handbook
| Year | 2025 course information |
|---|---|
| Award granted | Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing |
| Deakin course code | H572 |
| Faculty | Faculty of Health |
| Campus | This course is only offered Online |
| Online | Yes |
| Duration | 1 year part-time |
| Course Map - enrolment planning tool | This course map is for new students commencing from Semester 1 2025 Course maps for commencement in previous years are available on the Course Maps webpage or please contact a Student Adviser in Student Central. |
| Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognition | The award conferred upon completion is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework at Level 8 |
Course sub-headings
- Course overview
- Indicative student workload
- Professional recognition
- Career opportunities
- Pathways
- Course Learning Outcomes
- Course rules
- Course structure
- Fees and charges
Course overview
Every year, 2.8 million hospitalisations in Australia result in surgical interventions.* Integral to these interventions are the perioperative nurses providing care and support in pre-operative, intraoperative and post-operative environments. Deakin’s Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing will equip you with the advanced assessment, practical and communication skills needed to step up to the challenges of perioperative nursing.
Ranked #16 in the world,^ our School of Nursing and Midwifery is one of Australia’s largest and most established. You will be learning from the best with the School’s cutting-edge research recognised as well above world standard#. Our strong industry connections mean you will be guided by experts in critical care and perioperative nursing as you explore the current and emerging trends, concepts, knowledge and evidence that provides the policy and practice framework in which perioperative nursing takes place.
Are you ready to take on the challenge of advanced level nursing in perioperative settings?
As a graduate of Deakin’s Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing you will demonstrate ethical, safe, high-quality and expert clinical decision-making abilities within a multidisciplinary team. Your specialised theoretical knowledge, evidence-based practice and person-centred care will allow you to practise effectively at an advanced practice level, ensuring you are well placed to meet the industry demand for nurses with specialty skills.
Deakin’s strong industry connections ensure a high level of collaboration and support during your clinical practice. This means that while you study you can immerse yourself in your specialty nursing practice area with one of our numerous metropolitan, rural and regional health partners across Australia.
This course enables you to:
- critically assess and manage elective and emergency patients undergoing complex and specialty surgical procedures, including anaesthetic management
- develop an advanced understanding of pharmacological therapies, including anaesthetic agents, adjunct therapies and pain management therapies
- perform patient assessment and monitoring of neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory and haemodynamic states
- manage complex and special populations to identify risk and inform decisions that deliver safe, high-quality nursing care to promote optimal patient outcomes
- play a pivotal role in the multidisciplinary team management of surgical and/or procedural patients across: infection prevention, surgical safety and environmental planning and preparation; surgical wound closure and management; and medico-legal requirements
- demonstrate skills in advanced monitoring and postoperative anaesthesia care following complex and specialty surgery
- apply the core principles of perioperative practice across a range of surgical specialities.
Our innovative online program delivers a rich, interactive and empowering learning experience designed for postgraduate nurses. Live-streaming seminars and class discussions encourage critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills. Australia’s top-rated tech support and access to our expert teaching staff means you can learn at your own pace, when and where it suits you, without compromising quality or support.
Graduates are prepared to handle the contemporary challenges perioperative nurses may face with a course that responds to industry trends and demands. You will learn how to make a difference through roles in areas such as practice, education, leadership and research.
* Australia’s hospitals at a glance 2022 – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Australian Government (2022).
^ 2023 ShanghaiRankings Ranking of Academic Subjects.
# Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) 2018.
Indicative student workload
As an online student in the Faculty of Health you will be expected to spend 11-13 hours every week studying, interacting online and completing assessment tasks for each unit in your course. Refer to the individual unit details in the course structure for more information.
Professional recognition
Nurses employed under the Victorian public hospital award receive a higher duties allowance for postgraduate qualifications relevant to their practice.
Career opportunities
With job growth of 12.1% projected for registered by 2028,** there is an industry demand for nurses with sophisticated specialty skills. Our Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing will allow you to meet that demand in a variety of roles across advanced practice, leadership and management, including:
- anaesthetic nurse
- circulating nurse
- instrument nurse
- post anaesthesia care unit (PACU) nurse
- pre-admission and day surgery nurses.
** Jobs and Skills Australia Employment Projections
Pathways
Clinical practice
To undertake this course you must independently secure employment of at least 24 hours per week in a perioperative setting within a collaborating hospital in Australia.
Clinical requirement
Clinical practice across all perioperative speciality areas (intraoperative, perianaesthesia and post anaesthesia care unit) per semester.
Core clinical certificate units in this course are semester based. Students are expected to attend synchronous seminars on Wednesdays throughout the semester.
Course Learning Outcomes
| Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes | Course Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities | Demonstrate safe psychomotor skills and clinical practice commensurate with perioperative nursing theoretical knowledge, evidence-based practice and person-centred care. |
| Communication | Demonstrate communication skills to develop and implement plans of care to ensure the delivery of quality, safe nursing care to patients in the perioperative care setting. |
| Digital literacy | Evaluate information using digital technologies to effectively disseminate relevant perioperative care information to patients and/or the multidisciplinary team. |
| Critical thinking | Identify and evaluate complex data from multiple sources to inform clinical decision making in the perioperative care setting. |
| Problem solving | Apply specialised nursing knowledge and skills to routine and complex problems in the perioperative care setting to optimise patient outcomes. |
| Self-management | Demonstrate professionalism, accountability, reflection, and personal autonomy as a perioperative nurse. |
| Teamwork | Establish and maintain inclusive, collaborative professional relationships with all members of the multidisciplinary team. |
| Global citizenship | Display accountability for, and sound professional judgement in behaviours that uphold ethical principles of practice within diverse social, cultural, and environmental contexts. |
Course rules
To complete the Graduate Certificate of Perioperative Nursing students must pass 4 credit points and meet the following course rules to be eligible to graduate:
- DAI001 Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first study period
- 4 credit points of core units
Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements. See the enrolment codes and terminology to help make sense of the University’s vocabulary.
Note:
- This course is part-time only.
- Both the theoretical and clinical components of the assessment for each unit must be passed in order to successfully gain an overall pass in this course. Compulsory clinical hurdles form part of the assessment of this course. Recognition of the importance of clinical assessments is calculated in the overall student workload.
- Failure of a compulsory clinical component in a unit will normally lead to exclusion.
Course structure
Semester 1
| DAI001 | Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0 credit points) |
| HNN755 | Core Principles of Perianaesthesia Nursing Care |
| HNN740 | Core Principles of Intraoperative Nursing Care |
Semester 2
| HNN742 | Principles of Complex Perianaesthesia Nursing Care |
| HNN743 | Principles of Complex Intraoperative Nursing Care |
Course duration
Course duration may be affected by delays in completing course requirements, such as failing of units or accessing or completing clinical requirements.
Further information
Student Central can help you with course planning, choosing the right units and explaining course rules and requirements.
- Contact Student Central
Fees and charges
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study, and their study discipline or your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current students website.