Evaluating a Community Nurse Program for Child Health and Development

The REEaCh team are working on a four-year collaboration with Our Place, Goodstart Early Learning, and Latrobe Community Health Service Paediatric Unit (LCHS) on a project which aims to evaluate the implementation and impact of a Community Nurse Program at an early learning setting in a regional Victorian community experiencing severe social disadvantage.
The project team will conducted a mixed methods case study evaluation to assess the provision and reach of the Program by examining: (a) caregiver, child, education and Centre staff responses to the Program; (b) impacts on caregiver and educator capacity
to promote and support child health and development; (c) impacts on early identification and intervention of child health and developmental needs; and (d) preliminary impacts on children’s
health and developmental outcomes. Project findings will inform ongoing program refinements, support sustained implementation, and provide a model for replication and scaling up in other communities, offering insights and best practices that can be applied to achieve similar benefits in the first 2000 days of life.

Dr Penny Levickis
Lisa Murray
Dr Lynn Lee-Pang

This project received funding from the William Buckland Foundation.