In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
Nurses employed in correctional settings require knowledge and skills that align with the complexity and uniqueness of the prison environment. Further, it is imperative correctional nurses ensure the same standard of care is provided to offenders as to others in society. However, a number of impediments are encountered and require negotiation when providing care in a highly regulated environment including security restraints, high levels of staff authority and the prison culture. In this unit you will have the opportunity to explore the challenges associated with nursing in a secure and authoritative environment and in managing the prison culture. You will also develop the knowledge and skills required to meet these challenges to ensure a high and equitable standard of nursing care. You will examine characteristics of the prison culture including criminal identity, prisoner hierarchy, prisonerisation, jail language and ‘code of honour’. You will also acquire the knowledge and skills relating to, what is commonly termed, ‘jail craft’; being able to effectively communicate with offenders and Correctional Officers, maintaining professional boundaries, respecting cultural diversity including that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, dealing with vicarious trauma and possessing self-protectiveness and resilience.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2022
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Formal student feedback
Thanks for introducing a course for correctional health. Will be better if we could add more information about custodial staff involvement/role in delivering health care to inmates
The unit coordinator will explore the current evidence around the role of custodial staff in correctional healthcare provision and, where possible, weave this into the existing content.
Feedback from Formal student feedback
Adele Baldwin the unit Coordinator, was fabulous, engaging and her zoom sessions were my favourite. Adele has been excellent and supportive throughout the whole unit course. The content of this course is so relevant in the correctional nursing field. Adele's knowledge has advanced me to think more critically, analytically and question how to improve a difficult system with lots of barriers but source resources to change and improve the system. I have highly recommended this course to the company that I work for. I have encouraged the correctional nurses I work with to participate in the future and consider enrolling into this Graduate certificate in correctional nursing. Adele has started a drive in me to improve our current processes and procedures as well as encouraging nurses to look at the correctional field of nursing as a long term career choice
Ongoing engagement with industry will inform future unit content, ensuring that the unit content is relevant to industry partners, and provides appropriate learning opportunities to staff working in correctional health.
- Explain anomalies associated with the concept of caring in a custodial, authoritative and culturally diverse environment
- Describe the unique aspects of prison culture and analyse the impact of these on the nurse patient relationship and the capacity of the nurse to provide care
- Analyse the role of professional boundaries in correctional nursing and explain the skills required to construct and maintain professional boundaries
- Evaluate strategies to promote self-protectiveness and resilience in correctional nursing
- Discuss types of communication skills required to promote effective relationships with offenders and correctional services staff.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | |||||
2 - Presentation - 40% | |||||
3 - Case Study - 50% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 - Knowledge | |||||
2 - Communication | |||||
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
4 - Research | |||||
5 - Self-management | |||||
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
7 - Leadership | |||||
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures |