BMSC12014 - Pharmacology for Health Professionals

General Information

Unit Synopsis

In this unit, you will develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of pharmacology and pharmacotherapy relevant to your health profession. You will explore the mechanism of action of major drug classes used in pharmacological interventions or procedures in patient management relevant to your profession. You will be required to demonstrate critical analysis of this content and align this with current practice in your respective professions.

Details

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

Pre-requisites:

Pre-requisite for all courses except CV69: BMSC11005 Foundations of Biochemistry

Pre-requisite for CV69: ECHO11004 Biochemistry for Cardiac Pharmacology

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 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Cairns
Online
Rockhampton
Townsville

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 30%
2. Online Quiz(zes) 20%
3. Online Test 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

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.32% response rate.

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.

Source: Unit coordinator
Feedback
The revision activities provided to students contributes to strong performance in assessment tasks.
Recommendation
Continue to implement effective revision resources/strategies.
Action Taken
Revision activities to help students prepare for the assessment tasks were provided.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
The organisation and presentation of the unit content facilitates a systematic approach to learning.
Recommendation
Continue with this style of content delivery.
Action Taken
The content was organised and delivered in the same way as the previous offering of the unit.
Source: Students; Unit coordinator
Feedback
The wording of some questions in the End-of-Term online test could be improved.
Recommendation
Review the question bank and correct as appropriate.
Action Taken
New questions were written for the online test.
Source: Student emails; SUTE
Feedback
The oral feedback students received for the written assessment task was comprehensive and constructive.
Recommendation
Continue to provide oral feedback for the written assessment task.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
The unit provides useful information about 'on-the-job' pharmaceuticals and common prescription drugs in Australia.
Recommendation
Continue to provide course-specific material as well as content on common prescription medications.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
The 'real-world' drug examples provided in the tutorials made the unit more interesting.
Recommendation
Continue to integrate clinical ('real-world') examples into the unit material.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Discuss the basic principles of pharmacology, including pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics and drug design
  2. Discuss the indications, pharmacological action, routes of administration, contraindications, side effects and precautions of the major medication groups used in your health profession
  3. Discuss pharmacological applications associated with common procedures undertaken with your health profession
  4. Critically analyse the scientific literature relating to drugs and medicines within your health profession.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Online Quiz(zes)
3 - Online Test
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication
2 - Problem Solving
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
8 - Ethical practice
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