Foundations of Nursing Practice (NURS90154)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 25On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
| Availability | Year Long |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
In this subject students will develop professional behaviours, 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 clinical 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. 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.
Intended learning outcomes
At the completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Develop an understanding of the nursing process and how it informs the delivery of person-centred care;
- Critically evaluate and rationalise the purpose of patient assessment frameworks to formulate and implement comprehensive systems based patient assessment while maintaining cultural awareness, respect and sensitivity;
- Articulate and formulate strategies that facilitate a therapeutic nurse patient relationship while preserving cultural awareness, respect and sensitivity;
- Demonstrate competence in completing a physical, psychosocial and cultural assessment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other marginalised populations across the lifespan;
- Integrate health assessment into assisting clients with self-care activities and selected nursing interventions;
- Safely administer, rationalise the use for, and evaluate outcomes of selected oral, sublingual, buccal, topical, & mucous membrane medications;
- Safely administer, rationalise the use for, and evaluate outcomes of selected subcutaneous, intramuscular, intravenous and enteral medications;
- Discuss the clinical governance, legal and professional requirement associated with the use of pharmacotherapy in nursing practice;
- Demonstrate evolving skills in problem-solving, clinical reasoning, critical thinking, reflective practice and self-directed learning to the delivery of nursing care;
- Demonstrate the capacity to provide accurate written and digital health assessment data using appropriate terminology;
- Apply knowledge of patient assessment, evidence-based guidelines to select nursing interventions for patients with acute and sub-acute conditions; and
- Critically analyse how electronic medical records can optimise information use in a range of healthcare settings and contexts and demonstrate understanding of how electronic medical records work through practical activities.
Generic skills
- capacity for information seeking, retrieval and evaluation
- critical thinking and analytical skills in individual and interprofessional team settings
- capacity to rethink own ideas and an openness to new ideas
- appreciate how social-historical structures, including colonisation, contribute to social inequity and exclusion, and develop strategies that help redress this
- development of digital literacy skills required to communicate new knowledge
- demonstrate a profound respect for truth and intellectual integrity, and for the ethics of scholarship and practice
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
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: 4 March 2025
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
2 x Drug calculation Tests (online assessment, open book)
| Must be completed prior to attending clinical placement | 25% |
2 x Clinical communication during clinical encounter
| Prior to each Professional Experience placement | 25% |
E -Portfolio
| Throughout the teaching period | 50% |
2 x Completion of Clinical Assessment tool ANSAT
| In final week of each Professional Experience placement | N/A |
2 x Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
| Prior to each Professional Experience placement | N/A |
Professional Experience placement during assigned professional placement period
| N/A | |
Attendance at all Simulated Learning Laboratory classes
| Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Dates & times
- Year Long
Coordinator Sacha Petersen Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 48 hours lectures/seminars/workshops/webinars 48 simulation hours Total time commitment 340 hours Teaching period 3 February 2025 to 26 October 2025 Last self-enrol date 14 February 2025 Census date 2 June 2025 Last date to withdraw without fail 26 September 2025 Assessment period ends 21 November 2025
What do these dates mean
Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:
- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Andre, K., Heartfield, M., & Cusack, L. (2017). Portfolios: for health professionals. (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Elsevier Australia (a division of Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd).
Brotto V, Rafferty K. (2020). Clinical dosage calculations. (3rd. ed.). Cengage Learning.
Brown, D., Edwards, H., Seaton, L., Buckley, T., Lewis, S. L., Dirksen, S. R., . . . Bucher, L. (Eds.). (2017). Lewis' Medical-Surgical nursing. Assessment and management of clinical problems (5th ed.). Sydney: Mosby Elsevier.
Broyles, BE., McKenzie, G., Pleunik, S., Page, S., Reiss, BS., & Evans, ME., (2020) Pharmacology in Nursing. 3rd Australian & New Zealand Edition. (3rd ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia
Calleja, P., Theobald, K., & Harvey, T. (2020). Health Assessment & Physical Examination. 3rd Australian & New Zealand Edition. (3rd ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.
Crisp,J., Rebeiro, G., Douglas, C ., & Waters, D. (Eds.). (2020). Potter and Perry's fundamentals of nursing / Australian adaptation (6th ed.). Chatswood, N.S.W: Elsevier Australia. Available via Clinical Key Nursing
Levett-Jones, T. &Bourgeois, S. (2018). The Clinical placement: an essential guide for nursing students. (4th ed.). Chatswood: Elsevier.
Reberio, G., Jack, l., Scully, N., & Wilson, D. (2017). Fundamentals of nursing clinical skills workbook. (3rd ed.). Chatswood: Elsevier.
Walker, S., Wood, M., & Nicol, J. (2021) Mastering Medical Terminology. Australian & New Zealand 3rd Edition. Chatswood: Elsevier.
- Related Handbook entries
Last updated: 4 March 2025