NURS8821 Nursing Practice I (Nursing Assessment and Care)
This unit encourages students to explore and reflect upon their own personal and professional values, past experiences and the social, cultural and political context of collaborative practice. Students will explore the impact that diagnosis, treatment and prognosis may have on the person and their family when experiencing health alterations. The role of the nurse in the establishing, maintaining and terminating a therapeutic relationship will be considered. Using experiential learning, students will develop general interaction and therapeutic communication skills that enable them to perform nursing assessments and engage in psychosocial support interventions which are sensitive to the cultural background, emotions, cues and education needs of the patient and their family.
NURS8812 Nursing and the Health Care System
This unit enables students to explore international, national and local political and economic factors that impact on the healthcare system and the provision of health services. Students will examine current government initiatives, including funding models, health promotion and screening, and will debate issues identified in the provision of contemporary health care.
NURS8813 Evidence-based nursing practice
This unit is designed to meet the needs of nurses to retrieve, critically appraise and utilise nursing and other related research as an evidential base for practice. This unit provides an overview of research methodologies that will provide students with a broad appreciation of the many aspects of clinical research, including ethical and quality issues.
MICR8814 Microbiology for Nurses
This unit deals with the epidemiology and diagnosis of infection. The lecture component of the unit describes various types of infectious diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites in terms of their epidemiology, and how these infections are diagnosed in the pathology laboratory. The practical component of the unit gives students experience with identifying infectious agents, processing clinical material and understanding basic epidemiological principles. It is designed to provide nurses with a basic understanding of microbiology in a clinical context.
NURS8831 Clinical Nursing Skills I
In this unit students will be introduced to health assessment across the lifespan using a comprehensive culturally sensitive nursing framework. Students will develop skills in data collection and documentation that focus on the principles of effective communication, interviewing and physical assessment techniques. Students will be introduced to the theoretical basis of clinical decision making, problem framing and solving using data collected during health assessment. Focus will be on normal assessment findings to enable students to identify variations to these. Students will also be introduced to basic nursing skills and interventions. In the clinical skills laboratory, (and through facilitated clinical practice in NPI), students will develop skills relating to a comprehensive patient physical and health assessment, infection control, basic nursing interventions and drug administration.
EMED8815 Pathophysiology for Nurses
This unit consists of prerequisite knowledge for the more advanced nursing practice and clinical nursing skills units and focuses on the biologic basis for disease in adults and children. It reviews the normal physiological function of body systems and students are introduced to pathophysiology through discussion of the processes of degeneration, disease and injury, before focusing on the pathophysiology of common disorders across the life-span. Student learning will be facilitated through the use of system-based case studies that focus on the nursing and clinical application of the science.
NURS8822 Nursing Practice II (Medical/Surgical Nursing)
This unit builds on the knowledge and skills gained in Nursing Practice I and Clinical Nursing Skills I by introducing students to the dimensions of medical/surgical nursing of individuals across the life-span. In particular, the unit focuses on diseases that have been identified as National Health Priority Areas. Students will have the opportunity to examine the principles and practices for facilitating the care of patients experiencing diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes and arthritis. Incorporated into this unit will also be the practice of pre and post-operative care, admission and discharge planning, self care management, community health and support services and models of collaborative care. Students will continue to refine and expand their knowledge and skills in patient assessment, clinical decision making, nursing skills and interventions, medication management and drug administration.
PHCY8801 Pharmacotherapy for Nurses
The unit is designed to provide nurses with a basic understanding of drug substances and their application to the treatment of disease. Knowledge of a drug’s mechanism of action, effects, adverse effects, as well as typical dosing strategies will be covered. In addition, the impact of a patient’s physiological (eg. Pregnancy, age) or disease (eg. renal dysfunction) state on therapeutic options will be addressed. The pharmacotherapy will be placed within the Qualify Use of Medicines framework as well as the legal context. The unit will also equip students with practical strategies for accessing drug information by use of problem based learning.
NURS8832 Clinical Nursing Skills II
This unit builds on the knowledge and skills gained in Nursing Practice I and Clinical Nursing Skills I and complements the unit NURS8822 Nursing Practice 2 in introducing students to the dimensions of medical/surgical nursing of individuals across the life-span. Students will continue to refine and expand their knowledge and skills in patient assessment, clinical decision making, nursing skills and interventions.
RMED8816 Rural Health Nursing
This unit introduces and develops the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of a Registered Nurse for successful nursing practice in rural and remote settings. It enables students to develop an understanding of rural socio-cultural issues; the epidemiology of rural health and illness; occupational health and safety in primary and secondary industries; and rural and indigenous health service roles, activities and utilisation. It is framed on a model that is committed to the promotion, maintenance and restoration of health and well-being and to the prevention of disease in rural and remote communities.
NURS8817 Maternal & Child Health Nursing
This unit provides the opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge in the specialty practice area of child health and paediatric nursing, based on a family-centred approach to child health promotion. It will draw on foundation knowledge about normal pregnancy and childbirth, child development and early parenting, together with the social and cultural factors that can impact on the health and wellbeing of families. The unit will address the wide scope of practice for the nurse in maternal, paediatric and child health settings. Students will explore the impact of illness on children incorporating home and hospital care; demonstrate assessment of the paediatric patient and identification of abnormal symptomatology of common paediatric conditions responsible for presentation to hospital. In particular this unit will focus on infant feeding, basic nutritional requirements and fluid and electrolyte maintenance of the child including central lines and parenteral nutrition, medication administration, safety and harm reduction, appropriate documentation of care, and principles of growth and development, which underpin accurate assessment of the infant and child.
NURS8818 Mental Health Nursing
This unit introduces students to an understanding of the dimensions of the nursing role in mental health and illness of individuals across the life-span. Students will examine the principles and practices of psychiatric, mental health nursing for patients experiencing an acute or chronic mental illness. This unit will explore and discuss: National Mental Health Plan, major psychiatric disorders, mental health law, psychiatric nursing assessment, advocacy, consumer involvement, collaborative care models, and treatment services. The pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of psychotropic medication and issues related to medication management for people experiencing mental illness will be discussed. In the clinical placement under the guidance of clinical educators/ preceptors, students will gain experience in acute, sub acute or community psychiatric services that enable them to meet the learning objectives of this unit. The major focus for the clinical placement component of this unit is the integration of the principles of psychiatric mental health nursing and clinical decision making. On completion of the unit it is expected that students, while providing therapeutic interventions, is able to incorporate the further collection of health assessment data and adjust care accordingly for 1-2 patients.
NURS8819 Nursing Research Methods
This unit builds directly from the unit NURS8813 Evidence-based nursing practice . The focus will be on developing beginning level skills in the research process from developing a research question, writing research proposals, data collection techniques, data management and analysis using SPSS, data interpretation and presentation of findings.
NURS8823 Nursing Practice 3 (Complex Care)
This unit integrates the knowledge and skills gained in the prerequisite Nursing Practice, Clinical Skills and Nursing Science units, to care for patients with complex health problems. The role of nurses in collaborating with allied disciplines in delivering health care to these individuals will be explored. Issues such as the interface between primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care will be a focus for discussion and will include consideration of topics such as discharge planning, referral between health professionals, hospital in the home, case management and populations with special needs.
In the clinical skills laboratory students will practice complex procedural skills including for example complex wound dressings, central venous catheter management, venepuncture, management of the artificial airway, chest drains. Students will be required to complete the ARC/RC(UK) Immediate Life Support Course (one-day).
In the clinical placement under the guidance of clinical educators and mentors, students will gain experience in settings that enable them to meet the learning objectives of this unit. The major focus for the clinical practice component of this unit is the integration of the principles for holistic nursing, clinical decision making and more complex and advanced nursing interventions. On completion of the unit it is expected that students, while providing therapeutic interventions, are able to incorporate the further collection of health assessment data and adjust care accordingly for 2-3 patients.
NURS8820 Nursing Practicum
This is a capstone unit in which students will further consolidate and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired throughout the course and demonstrate competence in each of the ANMC national competency standards for the registered nurse. In the clinical skills laboratory students will refine and consolidate their procedural skills utilising a self-directed learning approach. Emphasis will also be placed on performing such skills in a time-efficient manner.
In the clinical practice, under the guidance of clinical educators and preceptors, students focus on the transition from nursing student to registered nurse with the goal of achieving readiness to practice as a registered nurse.
The major focus for the clinical practice component of this unit is to further build the student’s knowledge and skills of the assessment and management of patients experiencing specific health problems and to develop an understanding of the accountability requirements of the registered nurse. On completion of the subject it is expected that students is able to carry the expected load of a new graduate by caring for 4 patients independently with minimal supervision.
School of Population Health
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CRICOS Code: 00126G
