Welcome and how to participate in the NDC Accreditation Pathway

Welcome!

We're delighted that you've joined the NDC Accreditation Pathway and hope that you enjoy participating and being a part of the NDC Network of health professionals.

You are welcome to start using the materials in the Resource Hub straight away, including the parent handouts and clinical tools. You'll notice that quite a lot is downloadable, so that you can use them conveniently in your consultations.

Sleep, Baby & You is an extra set of resources for you to have amongst your clinical tools, to use for as long as you are part of The NDC Institute. You'll notice that it is a simpler version of The Possums Sleep Program, and less clinically oriented, but we hope you also enjoy using these materials in your clinic.

If you've made a bundle purchase and haven't yet completed the Masterclasses

If you haven't yet finished the Masterclasses (both Breastfeeding and Unsettled Baby/Perinatal Mental Health), please complete those first, since they are pre-requisites to the Accreditation Pathway. You're unable to join in the Live Network Hours until you've completed both Masterclasses. The Clinical Demonstrations in the Masterclasses don't count towards Accreditation. NDC Accreditation requires another four Clinical Demonstrations.

Pre-course multiple choice exam

Please complete the 100 multiple choice questions before commencing the NDC Accreditation Pathway. This is designed to give you a feel for where you are at, having done the Masterclasses and before moving into the Pathway. It doesn't matter whether you pass or fail the pre-course exam, since it is set up to be a learning experience.

Then you're ready to dive in!

Join the NDC Network for peer support

Please consider joining The NDC Network, currently a closed Facebook group for health professionals who are in the NDC Accreditation Pathway, already NDC Accredited, or in Maintenance of NDC Accreditation.

You can join this group by clicking here or copying this link into your search engine: https://www.facebook.com/groups/569631065371888r (Just to mention - it might take a couple of days for a facilitator to let you in. We try to be as responsive as possible, but our team is very small.)

We intend to have these as chat groups integrated into the website so for now we hope you enjoy being a part of the one Facebook group for The NDC Network. In time we plan to separate these into NDC Networks for

• NDC Accreditation Pathway participants
• NDC Maintenance participants
• NDC Accredited medical practitioners (due to the particular requirements of their role).

Please record your participation in your Activity Log

You are required to mark off

• Clinical Demonstrations (4)
• Live Network Hours (8)
• Case presentations (4)

as you complete them inside The NDC Institute's Education Hub. That way you'll have a record of where you're at in the course. You do this by going into your Activity Log, found in the left-hand column of this page, and marking off the Live Network Hours or Clinical Demonstrations that you attended. You don't need to book in - but you do need to mark off that you attended afterwards!

Clinical demonstrations

Please view four of these over the 12 month period of the Pathway. You can do these by the recorded videos, or by joining into any live online Clinical Demonstrations we're running. Could I please ask you to cover each of the following Clinical Demonstration topics

• The gestalt method
• The Possums Sleep Intervention
• The baby who cries and fusses.

Even if you listened to the Clinical Demonstration by a recording, please still go into your Activity Log to mark off the date on which that Clinical Demonstration was delivered live, to add to your tally.

Live Network Hours

Please participate in at least eight Live Network Hours. Please see the Live Network Hour module which details times and gives you the Zoom links.

Live Network Hours are social learning opportunities, so we'd ask you to please keep your video switched on, at least most of the time. (Please just let us know at the start of the session if you can't because of limited internet capacity, which can be the case in rural or remote parts of Australia, for instance.)

You're very welcome to participate in the midst of your family's evening life. In the past many health professionals have participated while breastfeeding or lying in the dark snuggling a small child to sleep. Folks have tuned in from cold climates at odd hours across time zones in their dressing gowns. It seems to us that this is how professionals with family responsibilities learn - in the midst of very busy lives. But the Live Network Hours are designed for active participation, interaction, and discussion. We do need to see you in your tile, at least enough of the time!

If you are a medical practitioner, you can join in any Live Network Hour on the first three Wednesdays of each month, or alternate Tuesdays. But you might also be interested in the Live Network Hour which is just for medical practitioners, run by Pam on the fourth Wednesday of each month.

Case presentations

You'll see in the Learning Objectives that there is a big focus on bringing a case for discussion to the group. Don't feel as though this has to be onerous. Your presentation of the case is best kept to 3-5 minutes or so. The intention is to give you rich opportunities to share of your professional experiences with families with babies, and to raise issues for discussion. If you are on maternity or parental leave, you could bring cases from your clinic prior to taking leave, or bring the cases of the people with small children around you.

After a Live Network Hour in which you've also brought a new case or clinical situation for us to discuss, please make sure that you go to your Activity Log (left hand column), and report your contribution. You'll need to initiate four case discussions in total.

By the end of the year you will need to have met the following Learning Objectives

1. Presented a case in a Live Network Hour which demonstrated identification of a breastfeeding problem and the participant’s management of that breastfeeding problem, and the case was discussed by the group and facilitator with feedback offered for improvement

2. Presented a case in a Live Network Hour which demonstrated identification of an unsettled baby problem and the participant’s management of that problem. The case was discussed by the group and facilitator with feedback offered. Reported to the group in a Live Network Hour about experience using NDC parent handouts and demonstration videos in clinical practice. The group discussed and offered feedback.

3. Reported to the group in a Live Network Hour about participant’s experience in use of the clinical aid for the NDC or Possums 5 domain approach to unsettled baby behaviour. The group discussed and offered feedback.

4. Reported to the group in a Live Network Hour about participant’s experience implementing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Self-compassion Therapy used in a consultation. The group discussed and offered feedback.

Please record the hours you put into viewing or listening to or reading content in your Activity Log

The Pathway requires you to put in at least 36 hours of engagement with NDC content over the year. You will need to keep a record inside your Activity Log of the hours you put into reading, listening to, or watching content. This content can be either from

• The Resouce Hub (which you'll see has hundreds of hours of content to choose from)
• Sleep Baby & You, or
• The parent programs.

Please mark off the hours that you spend engaging content by going into your Activity Log (left hand menu), clicking on the Add Activity button in top right hand corner, and manually add the hours you've just spent reading, listening or watching content.

Where possible, we've included pdfs of the PowerPoints that go with video presentations. We hope this means that you can listen to video audios when out walking or preparing a meal, for instance, and then look through the PowerPoints later to consolidate the information.

Post-course multiple choice exam

You will pass this exam if you score 95% or higher. If you don't reach that score, you'll be able to do the exam again. If you don't score 95% or higher the second time you take the exam, you'll be asked to contact education@pameladouglas.com.au, to talk over your situation with our Education Manager.

You don't have to do the exam all at once. You'll be able to go back in to where you were at and continue on.

If you fail the post-course exam twice, you may not be able to continue learning with us. If this was to occur, you would not be entitled to a refund.

Evaluation of the NDC Accreditation Pathway

Once you've completed the multiple choice exam for the final time, you'll be asked to complete a brief evaluation.

Accessing and using the NDC Practitioner logo and getting your practice up on the Find an NDC Practitioner map

After that, you'll be able to access the NDC Accredited logo, for use according to our Code of Ethics. _You will also be able to upload your details on the Find an NDC Accredited Practitioner map as detailed in module 7.

May you truly enjoy being a part of the NDC or Possums initatives!

Kind regards

The NDC Institute team

The diagram below gives you a quick overview of the NDC Accreditation Pathway