BMSC11014 - Lifestyle Medicine and Simulated Clinical Skills

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

Lifestyle medicine is a contemporary approach to patient treatment and will form an essential part of your future therapeutic scope of practice. You will study the foundational principles of lifestyle medicine and explore how evidence‑based lifestyle interventions can prevent and manage the chronic conditions commonly encountered in clinical practice. You will examine six fundamental components which form the core of lifestyle interventions—nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, substance reduction and social connection—and learn how each influences human physiology and long‑term health outcomes. Throughout the unit, you will build essential simulated clinical skills through lectures, case‑based learning and practical sessions. You will learn how to assess lifestyle‑related risk factors and apply culturally safe, patient‑centred communication in early clinical encounters. You will also study foundational, simulated clinical skills such as patient history taking and basic patient assessment techniques and procedures (blood pressure, ECG, respiratory function testing and a suturing workshop). This introduction will allow you to begin to integrate lifestyle intervention planning into routine medical care at the start of your medical education journey and have it form a central part of your future clinical practice, with a focus on simple, realistic strategies suitable for acute, primary and community settings. You will additionally explore the wider social, cultural, and environmental determinants of health, and the role of interdisciplinary teams in supporting sustainable behaviour change. By the end of the unit, you will understand how lifestyle medicine complements traditional medical management for a patient centred treatment approach in addition to an introduction of foundational practical simulated clinical skills.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Students must be accepted and enrolled into the CM17 Bachelor of Medical Science Pathway to Medicine course.

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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026


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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate 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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 50%
2. Practical Assessment 0%
3. Oral Examination 50%

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

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

No previous feedback available

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.

Unit Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the core principles and pillars of lifestyle medicine and their relevance to preventing and managing common chronic diseases
  2. Explain the physiological and behavioural mechanisms through which lifestyle factors influence health outcomes across diverse populations
  3. Apply basic lifestyle assessment tools and patient‑centred communication strategies to identify lifestyle‑related risk factors in simulated clinical scenarios
  4. Analyse case studies to determine appropriate, evidence‑informed lifestyle interventions that align with patient needs, values, and cultural context
  5. Demonstrate basic competency in foundational simulated clinical skills.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Practical Assessment •
3 - Oral Examination • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
5 - Team Work • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • •
10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10