Handbook home
Nursing Assessment & Care (NURS90130)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 25On Campus (Parkville)
Please refer to the return to campus page for more information on these delivery modes and students who can enrol in each mode based on their location.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 1
Overview
Availability | Semester 1 |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
In this subject students will develop knowledge and clinical skills to enable them to perform comprehensive health assessment across the lifespan using a culturally sensitive nursing framework. Students will gain an understanding of nurses’ roles and responsibilities in a variety of settings in which nursing takes place including; general practice, aged care, community and acute care settings. Students will be introduced to the recovery oriented model of nursing, develop skills in physical assessment techniques, data collection, problem identification, prioritisation, framing and solving and the documentation of data collected during health assessment. The focus in this subject is on assessment findings to enable students to identify variations to these. Throughout the subject there will be a focus on examining the health care system from the perspective of factors that can affect patient outcomes and the importance of identifying, critically appraising and integrating evidence into clinical practice. Using safety and quality as a framework students will examine trends in critical incidents that result in adverse outcomes for patients. They will also be introduced to emerging strategies in health care that seek to improve safety and quality and consider the role of the nurse in leading these efforts at a clinical and organisational level. Students will be exposed to a range of nursing skills, strategies for symptom management, selected diagnostic investigations and treatment interventions. Students commence the development of knowledge and skills related to therapeutic medication administration, the principles of the ‘quality use of medicines’ and drug administration for selected medications.
In the simulated learning laboratory, through facilitated clinical practice, students will develop skills relating to a comprehensive systems based patient physical and health assessment, infection prevention, basic nursing interventions and enteral medication administration.
During the professional experience placement, under the guidance of clinical educators and clinical preceptors, students will gain experience in settings that enable them to meet the learning objectives of this subject.
The major focus for the professional experience placement component of this subject is the integration of the principles of health assessment, safe and effective clinical decision-making and basic nursing interventions. On completion of the subject 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 1 to 2 patients.
Intended learning outcomes
At the completion of this subject students should be able to:
- Articulate and formulate strategies that facilitate a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship
- Demonstrate competence in completing a physical, psychosocial and cultural assessment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and other marginalised populations across the lifespan
- Identify the functions of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in a range of healthcare settings and contexts;
- Record quality data in EMR in person-centred models of care adhering to data protection and governance
- Interpret EMR data for effective interdisciplinary communication
- Critique the nature and quality of EMR data available for specific cases of patient / client management and support, healthcare service planning and clinical research
- Identify and critically appraise relevant research to inform evidence based practice;
- Conceptually map ethical and legal principles of communication and advocacy as they apply to nurse-patient interactions
- Critically evaluate and rationalise the purpose of patient assessment frameworks to formulate and implement comprehensive systems based patient assessment
- Proritise and rationalise patient health assessment data and implement nursing interventions within the Clinical Decision Making Framework
- Safely administer, rationalise the use for, and evaluate outcomes of selected oral, sublingual, buccal, topical, & mucous membrane medications
- Articulate the key contemporary safety and quality issues, and health care system as a potential source of adverse events for patients, in healthcare
- Prioritise, justify and escalate safety or care issues
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should be able to demonstrate:
- the capacity for information seeking, retrieval and evaluation
- critical thinking and analytical skills
- an openness to new ideas
- cultural safety
- planning and time management skills
- the ability to work effectively in a team
- the ability to communicate knowledge through classroom and web-based discussions and written material
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Completion of an online Manual Handling module prior to clinical placement.
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Case study Analysis 1
| Week 3 | 20% |
Case Study Analysis 2
| Week 7 | 20% |
Two-hour final examination; 2000 words
| During the examination period | 30% |
Attendance at all Simulated Learning Laboratory sessions
| During the teaching period and prior to undertaking the OSCE | N/A |
Clinical Component: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE); 20 Minute/1000 words
| Prior to Professional Experience Placement (PEP) | N/A |
Clinical Component: Attendance at all Professional Experience Practice days
| During the Professional Experience Placement (PEP) | N/A |
Clinical Component: Professional Experience Placement Appraisal (PEP) (Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT) )
| Final week of professional experience placement. (At completion of 120 hours of PEP) | N/A |
Clinical Component: Clinical Eportfolio PART A: Clinical case-note entries to EMR (Electronic Medical Record) PART B:Professional Experience Practice Analysis Essay
| Clinical E-portfolio PART A: Comprising of 4 EMR entries , one per week, entered during simulation. PART B: Due within one week of completion of Professional Experience Placement (PEP) | 30% |
Additional details
Hurdle Components
1. Attendance at all Simulated Learning Laboratory sessions (During the theory block of the semester)
2. OSCE (Must pass component for attendance at PEP) (On completion of all simulated learning
laboratory experiences)
3. Attendance at all Professional Experience Placement (PEP) days is compulsory (On completion of
prescribed Professional Experience Placement)
4. Student must pass 2 hour written exam
Students must pass the theoretical, clinical & hurdle components to achieve a pass in the subject.
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 1
Principal coordinator Jo Martin Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours lectures/tutorials/seminars, 18 hours clinical laboratory sessions, 120 hours professional experience placement Total time commitment 340 hours Teaching period 1 March 2021 to 30 May 2021 Last self-enrol date 12 March 2021 Census date 31 March 2021 Last date to withdraw without fail 7 May 2021 Assessment period ends 25 June 2021 Semester 1 contact information
Time commitment details
340 hours
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- Brown, D., & Edwards, H. (2015). Lewis’ medical-surgical nursing. (4th ed.). Sydney: Elsevier Mosby.
- Bullock, S., & Manias, E. (2016). Fundamentals of pharmacology. (8th ed.). Sydney: Pearson.
- Tollefson, J. (2012). Clinical psychomotor skills. (4th ed.). Australia: Cengage Learning.
- Crisp, J., Taylor, C., Douglas, C., & Rebeiro, G. (Eds.). (2017). Potter & Perry’s fundamentals of nursing / Australian and New Zealand edition. (5th ed.). Chatswood: Elsevier.
- Huether, H., & McCance, K., Brashers, V., & Rote, N. (2014). Pathophysiology: The biological bases for disease in adults and children. (7th ed.). St Louis: Mosby Elsevier.
- Calleja, P., Theobald, K., & Harvey, T. (2020). Health Assessment & Physical Examination. 3rd Australian & New Zealand Edition. (3rd ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia
- Patton, K. & Thibodeau, G. (2015). Anatomy and physiology. (9th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier Mosby.
Recommended texts and other resources
- Ackley, B, J., & Ladwig, G. B. (2016). Nursing diagnosis, an evidence based guide to planning care. (11th ed.). St Louis: Mosby
- Levitt-Jones, T., & Bourgeois, S. (2015). The clinical placement: an essential guide for nursing students. (3rd ed.). Sydney: Churchill-Livingstone/Elsevier.
- Brotto, V., & Rafferty K. (2012). Clinical dosage calculations for Australia & New Zealand. Australia: Cengage Learning.
- Reberio, G., Jack, l., Scully, N., & Wilson, D. (2016). Fundamentals of nursing clinical skills workbook. (3rd ed.). Chatswood: Elsevier
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Master of Nursing Science - Links to additional information
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 31 January 2024