CORE COURSES

Developing Advanced Practice in Health Systems I
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course examines contemporary issues related to advanced nursing practice and considers the supports and constraints within which nurses practice. Topics include ethics of care, leadership, advocacy, evidence based practice, health service management, professional standards, health informatics and multicultural health care.

Developing Advanced Practice in Health Systems II
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course examines the evaluation of clinical practice through clinical audit. Students progress through a series of readings and activities that introduce clinical audit and then progressively work through the processes involved in the development, conduct and reporting of an audit of clinical practice.

Focused Reading in Clinical Nursing (for students granted advanced standing)
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course examines contemporary clinical nursing practice through a critical review of the literature with a focus on acute care nursing practice. Students are required to follow a protocol to ensure scientific rigour and minimise potential bias.

Primary Health Care
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course will give students grounding in the basic concepts of primary health care. It will focus on issues in Community Nursing, Primary Health and New Public Health. The specific objectives are for students to understand primary health care philosophies underpinning practice, understand the socio-political environments in which care is delivered and further develop ‘transferable’ management and communication skills.

ELECTIVE COURSES

Students will have a choice of any other course offered via flexible learning by the Discipline of Nursing and approved by the course coordinator.

Population Profiling in Chronic Illness
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or 2
This course will require students to apply the skills and knowledge gained from the previous courses in order to fulfil the following objectives; to be able to profile populations and establish need; to have the ability to create supportive environments and strengthen ‘community’ action in order for individuals, families and communities to respond and help determine their own health status.

Management of Chronic Illness
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
The specific objectives are for students to develop an aspect of care based on current research evidence, acquire literature searching and critical evaluation skills using systematic procedures, and further develop ‘transferable’ management and communication skills. Students will cover the following topics: principles of management within the context of community/palliative care, diabetes, continence and medication management in relation to community care.

Functional Assessment
Units: 4 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course focuses on the skills of assessment and the planning of care and services. Topics include: physical assessment; assessment of activities of living; psychosocial assessment; problem identification and management; and enablement processes.


Introduction to Epidemiology
Units: 3 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
The aim of the introductory epidemiology course is to give students grounding in the basic concepts of epidemiology. Students will gain knowledge about measuring and interpreting disease occurrence, epidemiological models of causation, study designs used in epidemiology and when to apply them, routine sources of data, their strengths, limitations and interpretation, and will begin to critically appraise epidemiological literature with reference to issues of study design and interpretation of results.

Indigenous Health
Units: 3 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course offers students the opportunity to analyse current public policy affecting the health of Aboriginal Australians. It uses historical and political analysis, and comparative students of other indigenous populations, to provide a context for reflection on current Aboriginal health status and health needs. The subject provides opportunities for students to explore a wide range of Aboriginal health programs and issues, through an intensive and multi-disciplinary teaching program and individual research.

Emergency Care
Units: 2 units
Teaching period: Semester 2
This course has a particular focus on clinical skill acquisition in the area of emergency care.

Pathology and Pharmacology
Units: 3 units
Teaching period: Semester 2
This course advances students understanding of pathology and pharmacology, as they relate to specific diseases. Students are required to apply this knowledge to clinical problems encountered in their daily nursing practice.

Health Assessment
Units: 3 units
Teaching period: Semester 1
Taking a holistic approach, this course resents methods of taking a health history, physical examination skills and health promotion techniques. These skills will assist general practice nurses to function in a multidisciplinary setting and in isolated practice.

Infection Control Nursing
Units: 6 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course will examine nursing and medical science in relation to the control of infection. Topics include decontamination and sterilisation of medical devices, the clinical management of the patient with an infectious disease or infection, the teaching/learning process in staff education and other contemporary issues within infection control.

Issues in Death and Dying
Units: 2 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
This course addresses physiological, psychological and spiritual aspects of dying, in the context of hospice, home-based and hospital palliative care. Legal and ethical issues relevant to death and dying are presented.

Loss and Grief
Units: 2 units
Teaching period: Semester 1 or Semester 2
The course offers grounding in theoretical frameworks of loss and grief encountered by the caring professions. An overview of the paradigm of loss and grief, with a focus grief resulting from selected specific losses other than death.