This education resource was originally produced for maternal and child health nurses in Victoria by the Department of Dermatology at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne in 2002. Whilst that publication, "Skin. An education program for Maternal & Child Health", needed revision, the folder continues to be relied on in many maternal & child health clinics across Victoria and has been valued by those nurses.
In 2018, the Skin Health Institute received the necessary support to update the folder's contents and, more importantly, extend its availability online to a wider national audience, including maternal & child health nurses, pharmacists, GPs and those other healthcare professionals working in maternity wards.
Copyright of the original publication was passed across to the Institute, and a team of dermatologists with these particular sub-specialty interests was assembled to review and update the information.
These dermatologists have sub-specialty interests in neonatal skin health, in the specific skin conditions addressed, and the common skin conditions experienced by mothers. They have been able to bring new life to the former work of St Vincent’s Hospital. We owe them all a great deal of gratitude. All those authors are acknowledged in the Contributors section of this Resource.
We would also like to acknowledge the help and advice provided by maternal & child health and other healthcare professionals, particularly Marcia Armstrong, the Principal Maternal & Child Health Nurse Adviser for the State of Victoria, Mr Joey Calandra from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, as well as those other members of the Steering Committee: Professors Chris Baker, Peter Foley, the Institute's former Executive Director, Mr Chris Arnold, their Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr Peter Monaghan. (See also Acknowledgements).
This resource has been developed and produced by the Skin Health Institute in Melbourne, with the financial support of a grant from Johnson & Johnson Pacific.