Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Science (GD-REHABSC)

The Graduate Diploma of Rehabilitation Science is a fully online graduate program that is designed to support students at different stages in their careers, including career starters and those with clinical experience seeking to improve their practice and gain further qualification. The online delivery model allows this course to be structured to suit student study preferences and individual needs. This Graduate Diploma program supports independent and collaborative learning and offers a strong cohort experience with both asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences.

The emphasis in this course is on promoting contemporary best practice rehabilitation in multiple clinical and community contexts in both national and global settings. This course builds on students’ knowledge and skills to identify and analyse the multiple determinants of health that influence wellbeing, and to design and implement rehabilitation strategies in a holistic, person-centred manner at both an individual and group level.

Students will learn about the principles of rehabilitation and habilitation, the physiology of fitness and conditioning and the pathophysiology of selected conditions and specific needs in different chronic disease populations. The use of evidence informed clinical decision-making, emerging technologies and rehabilitation approaches, and strategies for the effective and safe implementation of rehabilitation in a range of practice contexts will be examined. Specifically, students will learn techniques including exercise prescription, goal setting and health behaviour modification, measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviours, fitness evaluation and the selection of appropriate outcome measurements and indicators. At a group level, students will learn to complete a health needs analysis for rehabilitation programs, write grant applications for funding of rehabilitation programs and measure group outcomes.